Practice management

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.

The CFP Board permanently revoked the right of William B. Smith of Grafton, Mass., to use the CFP designation after investigating allegations that he fraudulently used $1.2 million in client’s money for his own benefit and moved $25,000 from another client to his own account.

A prolonged low-interest-rate environment has compelled high-net-worth investors to seek out dividend-producing stocks and corporate bonds with renewed vigor, according to a new survey by Fidelity Investments.

The regulator announced Thursday it fined Merrill for “supervisory failures” and “for failing to provide certain required trade notices.” Merrill has provided $32 million in remediation, plus interest, to the affected customers.

Ranging from 13 to 22 years old, some members of Generation Z may have just gotten their first cell phone, but that does not mean advisors should ignore them.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested that the Volcker Rule to ban proprietary trading would have helped to prevent the $2 billion credit loss at JPMorgan.

Social media record keeping may become a larger challenge for firms as they keep pace with regulatory rules, Bank of America Merrill Lynch executive Douglas G. Preston said Wednesday at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association’s Social Media Seminar in New York.

In the puzzle of oncoming financial regulation, how to properly oversee a firm’s liquidity is one of the largest pieces regulators are now working to get right.

James E. Putman, the founder and former CEO of an Appleton, Wis., investment firm, was disciplined by the CFP Board for allegedly accepting $1.24 million in kickbacks for steering clients’ money into dubious investments.

As Comptroller Curry discloses concerns about JPMorgan Chase's risk management, lawmakers continue their debates over agency funding, derivatives oversight and other issues of the reform effort.