Practice

Zsa Zsa Gabor has never been one to shy away from the limelight. But when does pursuing fame cross the line for a 94-year-old? That point may have come this week, when her husband of 25 years told CNN that he had started the process of donor matching and blood work so he could turn Zsa Zsa into Ma Ma.

Breaking through the growth barrier is a concept that's all too familiar to most advisory firms at one point or another in their development. The principals have founded the business, then scratched and clawed to get it to the point of viability. But at some point, even though the firm may have gathered a respectable amount of assets, the growth just seems to plateau. Here are eight tips to help get your firm over the hump:

Hiring staff to help streamline processes and handle the workload can lead to huge growth for financial advisors who are willing to take the plunge, says Chad Olivier, founder of The Olivier Group, a financial advisory firm in Baton Rouge, La.

A former managing director of the Nasdaq Stock Market was sentenced today to 42 months in prison by a federal judge in Virginia.

Five years from now, the median account balance of a defined contribution plan assets will reach $150,000, up from $100,000 today.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has upheld an administrative judge's ruling that a mutual fund trader must pay more than $200,000 in penalties for accepting gifts from broker-dealers to steer trades their way. The regulator didn't buy the trader's excuse that the mutual funds weren't harmed.

Donald Johnson, 57, was sentenced for engaging in insider trading on multiple occasions based on material, non-public information he obtained in his capacity as a Nasdaq executive. Johnson also was ordered to forfeit $755,066.

Since I’m such a big proponent of using free publicity versus paid advertising as a business growth strategy, advisors often ask me if it ever makes sense to advertise. In a word, yes.

The Securities and Exchange Commission Friday launched its whistleblower program, launching a Web page to collect “original information’’ about securities laws violations.

They're an elongated equivalent of a ticker tape. Instead of four-character symbols and another four characters of pricing information, they're 140 characters of insight and links to deeper information.