Practice management

Five steps you should take now to protect your firm from fraud.

Developing a vision and a plan for your business takes focus, collaboration and consistency. And it's how the best performers enhance their success.

The economics that drove up the costs of traditional pension plans are showing signs of slowing down and that could augur their comeback.

Two Morgan Stanley financial advisors moved to Wells Fargo's independent brokerage arm in Maryland this week, taking advantage of a career path that one recruiter describes as the best of both the independent and wirehouse channels.

Fieldpoint Private, a Greenwich, Conn., based wealth advisory and private banking firm, announced Thursday that M. Thomas Conway has joined the firm as a managing director and senior advisor.

Goldman Sachs will pay $12 million to settle charges it made undisclosed contributions to a former Massachusetts state treasurer in violation of "pay-to-play" rules.

Advisors need to help clients focus on their long-term plans by demonstrating the risks of short-term emotional decisions.

Many advisory firms turn to marketing to expand their practice, but few firms are able to develop an effective strategy. Here are five ways to leverage marketing for optimal growth, according to the 2012 FA Insights Study of Advisory Firms: Growth by Design.

"As breakaway brokers continue to seek the benefits of the independent RIA model and a large number of RIAs near retirement, we're seeing unprecedented opportunities to create mutually beneficial relationships between advisors," said Ben Welch, Ameritrade's director of advisor business development. "RIAConnect meets the increasing demand for a more effective way to connect firms and helps support advisor growth potential."

In an effort to give smaller RIAs access to a broader array of services, Ron Carson has launched Carson Institutional Advisory. The new platform includes a succession planning strategy as an added attraction.

The Spectrem Millionaire Investor Confidence Index rose nine points in September, moving into positive territory for the first time in three months.

Planners born before 1946 may be members of the so-called silent generation. They may stand three generations older than the rising Geneneration Y, but they are the demographic that Gen Y trusts the most, according to a new white paper,

Fewer affluent investors now describe their outlook on investments as conservative, and that optimistic outlook has reached the 18 to 34 age set, according to a survey conducted by Merrill Lynch.

A new arbitration decision holds a lesson for financial advisors: Be careful when you leap.

If you want to attract new clients, spend time talking about the benefits that people will have by working with you. Too many advisors talk mostly about their process. The problem with that is people don't care about your process.

More than four in 10 investors (41%) view themselves as "very inexperienced" with investing, up from 27% last year.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil and criminal charges against a Pennsylvania man accused of defrauding elderly investors by issuing phony account statements inflating the value of his clients' accounts, and then pilfering funds from another client in a repayment scheme.

When it comes to practice management, experienced advisors want to learn more about three subjects: engaging centers of influence, pricing, and measuring and building client loyalty. At least, that's what Genworth Financial Wealth Management has heard from advisors attending its Mastery practice management workshops for independent advisors

Members of Generation Y are fundamentally less trusting, more inclined to do their own research and more insistent on mobile technologies for everything - including their financial planning and investing. This is according to a new white paper that urges planners to get to know Gen Y better by comparing it to the two generations that preceded it: Generation X and the Baby Boomers.

As the trend toward independence continues, the opportunities raise questions from those advisors who are considering making the move. Shirl Penney of Dynasty Financial has created a helpful list of frequently asked question (and answers) for advisors who are thinking about going independent.