Practice management

After breezing through a Senate hearing last week, Jamie Dimon faced tough questions from members of both parties at a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee.

Wells has been on a hiring tear, having added advisors with more than $1.9 billion to its various wealth businesses already this month.

According to the World Wealth Report 2012, last year was the second most volatile period in the last 15 years. The number of people with over $1 million investable assets increased by a marginal 0.8% world-wide, and their overall wealth fell by 1.7%, the second decline since 2008.

Tom Ford and Jeff Jones join Raymond James’s employee broker-dealer arm, Raymond James & Associates, in Peoria, Ill., and now operate as the Ford Jones Group.

Change is in the air for one of the world's oldest asset management fund shops.

Now is the time to find out if your current business model is providing the kind of client experiences that makes you either a wealth manager or an investment facilitator. (And if you don’t know, you should because your clients surely know the difference.)

Daniel J. Trolaro, a former planner and insurance agent from East Hanover, N.J., allegedly defrauded nine clients out of a total of $1.9 million, which he then used to gamble online, according to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General.

Rene Nourse has established a new company, Urban Wealth Management, in El Segundo, Calif., that will use Concert Wealth Management for advisory services and Concert Advisor Services for back office support.

Marketing expert Marie Swift says financial advisors who find their voice and unleash their personal story will rise to new heights as they capture the attention and hearts of their audience and influence key decision-makers in their communities.

The Northern Light Fund Trust and certain members of its current and former trustees as well as an unnamed chief compliance officer have received a “Wells notice” from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

There are roadblocks that can hold an organization back from achieving its full potential. But how can you turn dysfunction into better results?

Advisors “are now at the point where they are asking, ‘What oar should I buy?’” said Blane Warrene, the CEO of Arkovi, a leading social media archiving service.

The CFP Board disciplined 24 planners in its most recent thrice-yearly review of disciplinary or ethics allegations. In 13 cases, planners lost their rights to use the CFP designation permanently. Six other planners received suspensions for varying lengths of time, and five received letters of admonition.

As experts forecast persistent fiscal issues in Europe and disappointing growth domestically, this is the most important time for advisors to pick up the phone and talk to their clients, UBS Wealth Management Americas CEO Robert McCann said.

Social media is today's printing press and advisors have to be prepared for a new Rennaissance, according to Jason Seiden, the co-founder and CEO of Ajax Social Media Group.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has introduced an iPad application for its corporate treasury clients using the online payment and invoicing system, Paymode-X.

More than 20% of male baby boomers surveyed have postponed their retirement, 27% don’t know when they will retire, and 20% haven’t even saved for retirement at all.

“There is a tremendous generational shift we are starting to see already,” said Tom Nally, the new president of TD Ameritrade Institutional. “By the end of the decade, the next generation, will have over $28 trillion, up from $2 trillion. It is incredible.”

Independence and technology are the leading factors for successful advisors, according to four advisors at TD Ameritrade Institutional’s Elite Summit, but some of the other factors were even more surprising.

“There are so many wonderful financial planners but so few of them do business financial planning,” says Karl Frank, a planner and founder of A&I Financial Services in Englewood, Colo., who specializes in entrepreneurial clients.