Ann Marsh

Last month fewer broker-dealers closed their doors and fewer new ones opened them - a drop in overall activity that appears to be the product of three factors, according to David Alsup, director of business development for The Compliance Department, a consulting firm that regularly tallies these numbers.

At 80 million strong, Generation Y represents a bigger opportunity than their Boomer parents for planners. But members of this generation neither think nor behave like their elders, according to a new white paper.

Washington Wealth Management added Domari Wealth Management, a breakaway team from Wells Fargo with $135 million in AUM and $1.4 million in revenue, to its newly formed Woodland Hills, Calif., office.

"Confidentiality is critical," says Mary Ann Buchanan, a 25-year industry veteran and founder of Purcellville, VA-based RIA Match. "[Advisors] need to be able to look around anonymously. They need to have the ability to stick their toe in the water and see who is out there. Names and addresses [collected from users] will never, ever be sold."

By the end of last year, assets under management in global alternative investments hit $6.5 trillion, having grown seven times faster than traditional asset classes over the previous five years. This is according to a new McKinsey & Company study that predicts this growth represents only the beginning of a new wave of assets moving into alternatives.

Seeking confidential access to brokers looking to make a transition, Securities America has signed a new agreement with online company Join A Firm that will cover costs for its branches to maintain profiles on the recruit-matching site.

The SEC has obtained a $1.1 million settlement from Portland, Ore., based planner Christopher Keil Hicks and two of his companies on charges they failed to disclose a revenue-sharing agreement and other conflicts with his clients.

Independent planning firm RMR Wealth Builders of Teaneck, N.J., has left its long-time independent broker-dealer, the Cetera company, for Innovation Equity Partners Financial in Tampa, Fla.

In an effort to leverage its increasing scale while maintaining the independence of each of its four B-Ds, Cetera Financial Group is rebranding each of those companies with new names that all begin with Cetera.

"We have many advisor who are choosing to build their practices around women," says Joan Khoury, LPL's chief marketing officer. "When they do this, we are empowering them to have all this turnkey info for their women investors."

A new online company, FutureAdvisor, aims to break open the market for sophisticated financial advice and make that service available not only to the wealthy, but to all investors. Launched in 2010, the Seattle-based startup says it already analyzes $4 billion in assets for its users and, today, it announced $5 million in new venture capital funding. …

LPL is determined to help advisors up their games in order to be able to serve clients who are generating new wealth or coming into possession of it.

In a new survey, the CFP Board revealed just how pervasive the financial abuse of seniors has come to be. At the same time, the board is seeking new standards to help seniors - and all consumers - better understand which self-described financial advisors are truly out to serve their best interests.

In the first of what the SEC hopes will be many more such awards, a whistleblower has received $50,000 for his or her help in stopping a multi-million dollar fraud. More money may be forthcoming for the individual if other, related cases move forward. The first award comes about a year after the whistleblower program began operating.

In a surprise move, incoming National Association of Personal Financial Advisors Chairman, Ron Rhoades, said that because of a compliance violation by his firm he will not be assuming the helm of the advocacy group on September 1 as anticipated.

How might the world have been different if, starting 10 years ago, every would-be home buyer had access to a free and independent tool that showed them - in highly personalized and granular detail - precisely what they could and could not have afforded to buy? Would there have been a real estate crash at all?

At four years and counting, the low-yield environment for bond looks likely to continue well beyond 2012 and has caused many investors to sit on the sidelines and miss out on additional income.

For some clients, it might make a lot of sense for planners to hedge large corrections by treating market volatility as an asset class to protect them from excessive downside risk.

Birmingham, Ala.-based advisor group Bridgeworth Financial, with nearly $1 billion in AUM, has left Lincoln Financial to join the country's largest independent B-D, LPL Financial, in a move that demonstrates the benefits of scale.

In an uncertain market, many wealthy clients are fearful of giving away liquid assets to reduce the size of their estates. An alternative is to give a home to the next generation using a lease-back strategy.