Practice management

Sometimes, advisors can build a better business by avoiding discussing business altogether.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced Tuesday it suspended indefinitely Pinnacle Partners Financial Corp., of San Antonio, Texas, and its president, Brian K. Alfaro, for failing to comply with a FINRA temporary cease and desist order “prohibiting their fraudulent misrepresentations.”

The FDIC engaged in an activity that paints an alternate history detailing how it might have handled the collapse of Lehman Bros. if its new reform powers had been in place.

With the shift, MSSB has hired J.P. Morgan Chase’s Jeff Hack as chief operating officer.

Most financial advisors do an outstanding job of building and maintaining relationships with their wealthiest clients but all too often fail to deliver the full buffet of financial services these highly coveted and well-healed clients want and need.

Raymond James announced Monday that it hired Martin Gelb and Sonya Gelb Choeff. The father-daughter team joined the new Miami Beach branch of Raymond James.

Every communication is an opportunity to reinforce your positioning, market your firm and your build your brand. Yes, you really are marketing, whether you think so or not. Might as well do it right.

A need for higher-level support than interns could provide and a desire to help bright young people develop into full- fledged financial planners were the motivations behind a unique training program at Cornerstone Wealth Advisors, Inc. in Edina, Minn.

Robert Kerzner, president and CEO of LIMRA, LOMA and LL Global opened the 2011 Retirement Industry Conference with a plea to insurance professionals to familiarize themselves with the tools and sales and marketing techniques required to attract younger investors to their firms and products.

Taking advantage of opportunities will enable life insurers to play catch-up to the success mutual fund companies are enjoying, says LIMRA/LOMA CEO.

Six days after the Securities and Exchange Commission holds a roundtable discussion regarding money market funds and systemic risk, the Investment Company Institute (ICI) will host its own one-day money market fund summit.

Bankers are divided over a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. plan to train bank employees on insurance limits and require tellers to question depositors about their accounts.

In addition, 55% don’t know how much they will need to retire.

A House oversight committee hearing slated to examine state and municipal debt Thursday devolved into an extended debate about collective bargaining, featuring two sitting governors from opposite ends of the political spectrum.

Small business owners first crippled by the economic downturn and then further encumbered by a tight lending environment in its aftermath are set to hire more workers, make more capital investments and are reducing their retirement savings targets this year as they set their sights on growth and expansion.

Some advisors are averse to even DISCUSSING the value of portfolio management, possibly believing that we all spend too much time talking as if financial planning and portfolio management are the same service--which they clearly are not.

FINRA fined Jefferies & Co. $1.5 million, ordered the investment bank to repay $425,000 in ill-gotten commissions and fees and suspended a pair of its brokers for failing to disclose additional compensation to institutional clients and other conflicts of interest related to shady sales of auction rate securities between August 2007 and March 2008.

Wealthy women want three things from their financial advisors: honesty, trustworthiness, and transparency, according to “Wealthy Women Investors,” a Spectrem eZine report released on Thursday.

The National Association for the Self-Employed advised small business owners who have put off doing their tax returns not to panic.

Small business owners reported an increase in hiring, but a decrease in optimism last month, according to a new survey by the National Federation of Independent Business.