Practice management

“It's a pretty big issue for us,” said Daniel Sibears, FINRA executive vice president for member regulation. “There are many dozens of complaints where there's been [a] compromise of customer information, particularly information that is needed to get into online accounts and to execute transactions and move money.”

Investors remain wary of the financial sector, which is bad news for advisors. But by examining the best practices of successful advisors, we can all learn valuable lessons about how to strengthen trust and build greater public confidence.

Thirty eight percent of fund firms across the country said that they will increase technology-related costs while a total of 17% of respondents said they expected no change in whether their firm's technology costs would rise or decline for the rest of this year.

Women are a growing economic force. They currently control the majority of wealth in the U.S. and are estimated to receive approximately 70% of the $41 trillion in intergenerational wealth transfers over the next several decades. It makes good business sense to learn how to attract and retain these economically powerful female clients.

Seeking a better way to share documents with wealthy clients, Exemplar Financial Network chose a Dropbox-like service with client-side encryption.

Government policy is becoming a more prominent topic of conversation between financial advisors and their clients, according to a recent study as well as anecdotal reports -- and remarks by the Federal Reserve chairman last week on the future of the Fed’s stimulus policy have spurred even more discussions about government policy.

Thanks to video conferencing, RIAs have a much broader array of hiring options to consider.

Citi's social media guru Frank Eliason offers insights into how to pick social media partners, while consultants and lawyers share what's needed in any vendor relationship.

Women in the United States account for about 47% of the workforce, compared to roughly 29.6% in 1950, according to data from the U.S. Labor Force. No doubt about it, female influence in the workforce is growing. Yet, the gender divide among advisors at the some of the largest firms is pretty striking.

Financial advisors are concentrating too much of their resources on baby boomers and not enough on the next generation of clients, suggests a new report from Cerulli Associates.

Two U.S. Senate aides nominated to join the Securities and Exchange Commission will get a confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on June 27, according to a Senate announcement today.

It’s common knowledge that Americans aren’t saving enough for retirement. But just how large a deficit is startling.

Assets in defined contribution plans flowed to target-date and international equity funds in 2012, according to a new tracking tool launched by the Defined Contribution Solutions group at Northern Trust.

When advisors are asked to describe their compensation on the FPA website, they can choose to check one of four options: fee-only, commission-only, a combination of fee and commission, or salary. But as one prominent advisor recently learned, those options are dangerously limited, given the industry’s often complex business models -- and the answers that planners select can contain minefields for the advisors, their firms and their clients.

Driven by difficult market conditions and higher levels of anxiety among investors, the question of whether or not advisors are "stealing" client has been coming up more frequently in the past few years. The overall growth rate for advisory practices has been stagnant for a decade, which is pushing sales management to scrutinize who is growing and why.

Communicating what you can do for prospective clients is much more effective if you talk about what changes they want to see rather than what activities you will do for them.

Seven financial advisors had their right to use the Certified Financial Planning certification marks permanently revoked in March as part of a series of public disciplinary actions announced by the CFP Board this week.

Financial institutions should develop distinct service offerings for young investors that speak to them at their life stage.

A strong majority of advisors (86%) said they had acquired more clients than they lost in 2012, according to a new advisor survey from Russell Investments, with nearly a half saying they had brought on more than 10 households. And 87% said they were "optimistic" about acquiring new clients in 2013.

Advisors must embrace the latest trends and advancements, or risk falling behind. Check out five best practices for the advisor of the future (and the present.)