Practice management

Steve Sanduski, “The Prosperous Advisor,” says when the markets turn turbulent, great advisors figure exactly what to do and say to calm down their anxious clients.

Frederick (Rick) Wise and Jonathan Block will be joining the firm as managing directors and senior equity research analysts covering healthcare. In addition, Robert Mains has joined the firm as a managing director, providing research coverage of healthcare providers and real estate companies.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is rolling out LinkedIn and Twitter to its full 17,000-member financial advisor force with the aim of helping to make time spent in front of the computer more effective than cold calling client prospects.

The new hires represent only a small fraction of the more than 250 financial planners that Baird has brought on since 2009 and compliment the approximately 15 offices the company has opened in the same period. According to John Mabee, vice chairman of Baird Private Wealth Management, the firm is not looking to stop now.

Hundreds of medium-size RIAs are procrastinating and face the specter of de-registration by the SEC if they do not file for state registration by Thursday.

The T. Rowe Price Personal App for iPhone and iPod touch provides investors the opportunity to manage their accounts and view fund information on the go.

Jackson National Life Insurance launched the Elite Access iPad application, following the rollout of the firm’s newest product offering.

"It's not how much you sell in social media," says Frank Eliason, SVP of social media at Citigroup. "The ROI is in the information that's out there; that leads to change and process improvement."

A new research initiative from the Insured Retirement Institute will promote streamlined licensing and registration processes.

National Planning Corp. has named Randy Miller as its new first vice president and director of practice management.

Steve Wershing, "The Referral Doctor," says the one of the biggest challenges financial advisors face when they’re trying to attract new clients is finding an effective way to differentiate themselves from the competition. Too often, advisors try to sell themselves as "better" when they really should be accentuating how they're different.

How do you stand out and make yourself different in a world where you have so much competition and you are viewed as a commodity.

Fund firms are beginning to like social media and the devices their staffs use to communicate online with customers.

Edward Jones plans to add about 8,000 advisors over the next eight years. If this ambitious goal can be realized or even approached, some of the success may be due to specialized efforts to recruit and acclimate new advisors from nontraditional backgrounds.

As workers hope to prevent income shortages throughout retirement, insurers turn to new mediums to provide new advice.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro answered Paul Scott Stevens’ volley with one of her own in front of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the United States Senate.

Gurudeo “Buddy” Persaud believed the earth’s gravitational forces impacts stock prices and that, under the influence of the moon, people tend to feel more dejected and sell off securities. In return, the SEC charged him with fraud.

Despite overall declines in the wealth of high net worth individuals, some smaller countries were hotbeds for growth.

Looking for some new (and free) online tools to compare your performance to other advisors or to reach out to new clients? Here’s a good place to start. Also see: 9 Steps to Grow Your AUM With LinkedIn 7 Facebook Basics for Financial Advisors 10 Critical Social Media Tips for Advisors 10 Steps to Twitter Success for Financial Advisors

Social media platforms Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter allow advisors to build new relationships and market their firms, but success varies from platform to platform.