Wealth Think

Building your own business, even with a team of experts behind you, requires making tough decisions regarding resources, clients and employees. But most of all it requires leadership. Dynasty's CEO Shirl Penney offers a few lessons his firm has learned as it continue to build a business.

"I think to just look at numbers on Wall Street and say, 'It looks like it's struggling' -- it's contracting in a very healthy way," said fomer Morgan Stanly Executive Bob Auer. "It's almost like a big fat guy that is losing weight. To say, 'Oh, he's just not the same guy…' No -- he's getting healthier and better."

When it comes to global investing, clients and their advisors often have varied concerns. From home-country bias to political instability, here are their most pressing worries.

Using social media is clearly possible -- some advisors have had great success with it -- and there’s no doubt that compliance is in some ways getting easier. Yet compliance is still widely regarded as a major hurdle.

As advisors, we work in a disciplined world of risk management and probabilities, while our clients rely on feelings and “gut” decisions all day long. We shouldn’t take our discipline for granted. We need to remember the vulnerabilities that lurk in the hard-wiring of the human central nervous system.

Nearly 200 financial advisors gathered at the Metropolitan Club in New York City with an aim to level the playing field within the industry.

It is vital that firms and financial advisors be aware of the stakes involved in the SEC's suit against the SIPC writes FSI president and chief executive of the Financial Services Institute, Dale E. Brown.

What impression do your clients get when they enter your office before even saying word? Are they comfortable and receptive or turned off? Ron Carson says little things can go a long way when it comes to attracting and retaining clients.

You can do your clients a great service by sharing this story and reminding them that gifts of valuable personal property need to be well-documented with good estate planning, so that their loved ones don’t have to fight in court over whether a valid gift was made or not.

How will you scale your practice? What's the secret to retaining Gen Y employees? What's the best way to network? For three days, advisors and industry experts descended on Las Vegas for the semi-annual National Association of Personal Financial Advisors conference to discuss these topics and many others. Check out some of the best things we heard.