Practice management

When it comes to succession planning, starting early, preparing well and mentoring all help make a transition smooth.

Most clients enter a financial planner’s office with high expectations so it’s important to discuss their views on risk at an early stage in the relationship.

The new hires are part of the firm’s aggressive two-year recruiting campaign to increase the sales force by 50% by the end of 2014.

If you’re like most advisors, plan growth is one of your highest priorities. However, for many, growing a business is an elusive dream or a worst nightmare. The typical advisor spends very little time on outreach, relying instead on referrals or direct-to-plan-sponsor marketing. Ken Haman writes that this “brute force” marketing worked in the past, but plan sponsors have become increasingly unresponsive to it.

Bring value on the very first contact. Bill Cates says it is a a simple concept that advisors often muddle. He offers three simple ideas to help provide value immediately to your new referral prospects.

Despite recent stock market gains, wealthy investors remain ambivalent about the economy.

Decision making is a major part of financial planning and the more advisors understand it, the better off clients will be.

It took four years of dreaming, and nine months of late nights and hard planning, but now it’s real. Dave Grant is running his own RIA and he's taking us along for the journey.

The threat of cyberattack is an increasingly hot topic in Washington, but political interest alone appears unlikely to provide enough momentum to get cybersecurity legislation supported by banks passed this year.

Advisors have heard the message loud and clear: Mobile matters. But for all but the most technology savvy advisors, coming up with a mobile app for clients is no easy matter. Here's what you need to know before launching that essential app.

As the baby boom population ages and average life expectancies climb higher, financial advisors must tackle one more topic in their conversations with clients: elder care. Morgan Stanley Wealth Management is now giving its advisors a new tool to help clients who need help caring for loved ones.

Around 200 female financial planners attended the Women Advisors Forum in New York City earlier this month. Sessions covered topics ranging from practice management and acquisition strategies to the benefits of developing a niche and ways to bring more women planners into the industry. Check out some highlights from the event.

As more investors manage money with so-called direct providers, many advisors -- whether they're in the RIA or wirehouse spaces -- worry they'll be left in the dust

For financial advisory firms, branding can be a balancing act between the strength of individual advisor’s brand and the larger, unified brand of the firm.

Kara M. Stein and Michael S. Piwowar, both senior U.S. Senate aides, were nominated by President Obama to join the SEC.

Can you say “no” to referral prospects? Bill Cates says it is a critical skill if you want to expand your practice.

A House subcommittee Thursday looked at draft bills that would slow down the progress that the SEC is making toward implementation of a new, uniform fiduciary standard for broker-dealers and investment advisors.

Many financial advisors struggle with the issue of efficiency and complain they simply don’t have enough time to execute new ideas in their practice because they are so busy managing clients. Ken Haman says advisors spend too much time responding to incoming telephone calls from clients—in fact, prioritizing the demands of various clients above their own business priorities. Its time for all of that to change.

A generation of millennials faces a slew of challenges in trying to save for retirement.

Rick Ketchum, CEO of FINRA, announced that the regulator will discuss a proposal at its board meeting in July that would require brokers to publicly disclose the compensation they receive when switching firms.