Practice management

If there is no silver bullet, what actions should be taken by an advisor who wants to grow his or her business? Put simply, give clients what they need, and they will give you what you need.

Building your own business, even with a team of experts behind you, requires making tough decisions regarding resources, clients and employees. But most of all it requires leadership. Dynasty's CEO Shirl Penney offers a few lessons his firm has learned as it continue to build a business.

With markets at near historic highs, investor confidence still lags. Both regulators and financial firms share the responsibility to do something about it, said Richard Ketchum, CEO of FINRA on Tuesday.

Former three-term Republican U.S. Senator Judd Gregg, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association's new chief executive officer, said Monday that he wants to improve the image of the industry and make sure Dodd-Frank rules are focused and not overly burdensome.

Hackers backed by China's military appear to have resumed a campaign of cyberattacks on U.S. businesses. The targets, which in previous attacks included financial firms, are thought to remain the same.

Advisors have not done enough to prepare the majority of wealthy investors for long-term care costs and financial support for extended family, according to a study conducted by U.S. Trust, a unit of Bank of America.

FINRA has increasingly put more firms on notice that they should expect their branch office doorbells to ring more often. In the past two years, FINRA has changed its approach when conducting examinations, favoring branch office inspections in lieu of the home office visits that it used to emphasize, said Susan Axelrod, executive vice president of regulatory operations at FINRA, at the self-regulatory organization’s annual conference on Monday.

A great wealth transfer may indeed be looming, but advisory firm executives are still focusing their creative energy on their boomer (and older) clients.

SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter endorsed a uniform fiduciary standard for all investment pros … then invited her audience to fight industry fraud and abuse by becoming whistleblowers

Only about 2,100 SEC-registered investment advisors switched their registration to state oversight, according to the North American Securities Administrators Association -- roughly half the number that the SEC estimated would switch as a result of the Dodd-Frank Act.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority will present the latest on fiduciary rules, enforcement and other issues affecting financial advisors at its annual three-day annual conference opening today in D.C.

Fidelity Investments has rolled out a smartphone application for NetBenefits 401(k) plan participants.

The House passed a controversial bill on Friday requiring the Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct additional economic analysis on its rules.

A U.S. District Court ordered a former Ameriprise advisor to serve a year of house arrest and pay restitution for defrauding a client.

“The face of the advisor will change. There’s going to be a large cohort of retiring advisors and young advisors. They are going to be more diverse, and more will be working part-time. We have to adapt services to the new demand, and develop tools to communicate and interact with advisors.”

As advisors, we work in a disciplined world of risk management and probabilities, while our clients rely on feelings and “gut” decisions all day long. We shouldn’t take our discipline for granted. We need to remember the vulnerabilities that lurk in the hard-wiring of the human central nervous system.

SEC Chair Mary Jo White defended the agency's request for a significant budget increase before a House oversight committee, arguing that the additional funding is necessary to equip the SEC with the resources to handle a litany of regulatory tasks, including increased examinations of investment advisors and enforcement actions.

Ultrahigh-net-worth families are asking advisors more questions about family offices. Here are a few guidelines to think about.

The firm added five advisors, with one from Raymond James and one from Morgan Stanley, to further expand in the region.

Same-sex and divorced couples can be a profitable niche for advisors, if they know how to market.