Practice management

What is your unique value proposition? What is the strategic direction of your practice? What can you do that will really drive referrals? The best answers may come from consultants often underutilized by financial advisors – your clients.

Three hires come from Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and another advisor joins from Oppenheimer & Co.

House Ways and Means Committee Democrats introduced a bill on Thursday that would reinstate Build America Bonds, the higher small-issuer limit for bank-qualified bonds, and six other bond, tax credit and loan guarantee programs.

Empowering the SEC to adequately monitor markets would help restore some faith in the U.S. capital markets, according to the industry group.

The new plans come as Baird plans to grow its advisor force by 150 in the next several years.

Insurance companies and investment firms offering retirement services to companies large and small are learning that attention to detail, an improved communication with plan sponsors and, indirectly, plan participants can dramatically improve their customer retention and satisfaction rates.

The financial advisor’s equivalent of the real estate agent’s “location, location, location” mantra is “communication, communication, communication.” Given the events in the Middle East, you have a perfect opportunity to communicate with your clients, deepen your relationship with them and position yourself as a thought leader with the investing public through a timely, well-written update letter.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority expelled MICG Investment Management of Newport News, Va., and barred its chief executive and majority owner, Jeffrey A. Martinovich, from the securities industry.

According to PIMCO, consultants said that active management makes the most sense for all asset classes, except large-cap U.S. equities.

Financial advisors who want to keep their high-net-worth clients happy and in the fold would be well advised to keep their mobile phones close at hand, according to a new survey conducted by Chicago-based affluent investor consultant Spectrem Group.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has not found any major abuses from its targeted examinations of broker-dealers that were either placement agents or worked with such agents to obtain business from municipalities and public pension funds, market sources said Tuesday.

While the financial services community waits for some movement from the SEC on new rules and policies governing advisors, the Labor Department has taken it upon itself to get the ball rolling in the name of better protecting investors and pensioners.

Roy Seay and Carolyn Edwards each worked at UBS for 11 years and together had $850,000 in annual production.

RIAs are embracing the idea of shaping their compliance procedures around what could go wrong.

A well-prepared professional approaches turbulence and dire conditions that present themselves calmly and confidently, performance consultant Dr. Rick Jensen told attendees of the Bank Investment and Securities Association in the closing keynote Tuesday.

Social media has become an inescapable force, but many in the financial services industry are still holding back from using it.

Client satisfaction and loyalty are poor indicators of a likelihood to refer. Julie Littlechild, President of Advisor Impact, de-mystifies the process for advisors attending the FPA Business Solutions Conference 2011.

The brokerage adds Rob Pietroburgo from Wells Fargo to its Springfield, Ill., branch as part of its advisor and branch expansion strategy.

Since the recession, institutions have had difficulties garnering trust, with 75% of those surveyed in a recent Capco/Tower study saying their trust in large institutions decreased after 2008. Making matters worse, 25% of financial advisors and wealth managers are leaving their firms and going independent, taking trusted client relationships with them, said Alvi Abuaf of FIS in a breakfast session at the ABA Wealth Management Conference Tuesday.

The company added six wealth executives in California, two in St. Louis, two in Washington state, one in Portland, Ore., one in Nasvhille, one in Portland, Maine, and one in Chicago.