Practice management

A cap that President Obama has proposed on the size of tax-advantaged retirement accounts is seen as potentially pushing savers to another product that limits payments to the government: life insurance.

Should this super star advisor use a recruiter to represent his interests? Does he need to?

Wealth management firms want advisors to spend more time in front of clients, and will be rolling out new technology to free them up to do just that, according to a survey by Ernst & Young.

Retirement income experts have a new professional designation to brag about.

“To build online influence in the age of social media, you must build a powerful online presence and consistently publish your thought leadership insights through a professional blog site,” says Stephanie Sammons, founder of Wired Advisor, a company that helps advisors set up search engine optimized blogs.

The federal regulator published a guidance update to clarify what mutual funds and other investment advisors can say on their social media sites (and things have become much more social.)

Here's how one advisory firm is going after the at first glance less-than-obvious client – by targeting the most obvious client of all.

RBC Wealth Management added a branch manager with three decades of experience to its Denver Tech office.

Wealth management, broadly speaking, is seeing impressive growth. But “broadly speaking” is a frustratingly vague term and most of your clients are not among the economic winners of late.

Sometimes it takes a "human capital strategy" to develop top talent. One firm has already used this strategy to multiply revenue by more than four times since 2004 with 30% expansion in staff.

Several provisions affecting advisors contained in President Obama’s budget blueprint drew sharp reactions from many corners of the industry, with groups variously praising measures to increase funding for securities regulators and blasting provisions concerning taxes and retirement planning.

The burgeoning influence of financial advisors in the United States was a repeated observation at this year's Tiburon CEO Summit at New York City's Ritz Carlton in Battery Park. Here are 11 themes we heard at the two-day event encompassing 200-plus executives and advisors.

CPAs and attorneys are great sources of referrals, but every advisor already knows this. According to Ken Haman, what your competition doesn't know (and what you are about to learn) is how to hone your message, stand out from the pack and generate more referrals from key influencers.

“As investor confidence grows and perceptions of wealth management firms improves, so do advisor perceptions of their firm, particularly among independent advisors,” the J.D. Power study reported.

The platform upgrade features advanced trading and modeling capabilities, enhanced user interfaces, and improved model data reporting, as a result of heightened demand for holistic advice and operational efficiencies in managed accounts.

Mary Jo White was sworn in as SEC chairman and led a meeting where the agency approved rules requiring brokers and investment advisors to adopt identity-theft prevention programs.

A top executive with Fidelity urged congressional action to stave off what he described as "a looming retirement crisis," appealing to lawmakers to pressure the Department of Labor to avoid an expansive redefinition of fiduciary responsibilities for advisors, among other things.

The Financial Services Institute is heralding the advance of legislation in Florida that would significantly ease the registration process for advisors representing firms headquartered in other states.

“We have found that people in Gen Y not only said they are highly disciplined, they really are more highly disciplined than people in older generations,” Bill Taylor, vice president of financial planning at Northwestern Mutual, said in an interview. “It might be because they’ve seen their parents hurt badly when stocks fell in 2008, because of the decline of defined benefit plans, or just because young people have access to more information today.”

An elevator speech is a quick way to explain the unique benefit you deliver to clients, but Steve Wershing says most advisors frequently provide just a rambling, somewhat fuzzy description of their practice. He says an effective elevator speech is succinct and highlights the difference from other advisors, but that's only part of the reason for learning one.