Investment Advisor August 2010
Cover Story
Majority Report: A New Approach to Advising Women
The journey to engage women more fully with their money has been a long and, so far, not very successful one. Studies continue to show...
Features
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Broker/Dealer Marketing: Finding Their Voice
Now that the markets and economy are showing signs of recovery, albeit haphazardly, independent broker/dealers are offering various new tools to help their representatives start...
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Overlooked Managers: First Things First
lbert Meyer, president and manager of the $8.9 million Mirzam Capital Appreciation Fund (MCAF; ticker: MIRZX), understands stock options and why companies give them to...
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College Savings: Do Your Homework
David Blain of D. L. Blain & Co., LLC in New Bern, North Carolina, recounts a new client couple who came to him already buried...
Beginnings
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Editor's Note: Eating Our Own
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and its 533 new rules, is now law (in contrast, Sarbanes-Oxley had 16). The firm of...
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Washington Watch: Financial Services Reform Finalized
Fresh off its July 4 recess, Democrats in the Senate were able to finally pass the financial services reform bill on July 15, after first...
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Wise Words at Morningstar
For investment advisors, the annual Morningstar Investment Conference experience is like the proverbial kid in the candy store. Held for the 22nd year in Chicago...
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Catching Up With Jeffrey Gundlach
Jeffrey Gundlach, founder of DoubleLine Capital and former CIO of Trust Company of the West, gave the keynote address at the Morningstar Investor Conference on...
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The ETF Advisor: ETFs Enroll in 529 Plans
After saving for retirement, saving for college is probably the most daunting financial challenge families face. So the creation of tax exempt 529 accounts in...
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Venture Populist: Terms of Engagement for Private Venture Advisors
Angel and venture investors often have the option to determine to what extent they intend to contribute professionally to their new portfolio holding. Investment advisors...
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Asset Allocation
Behind the Numbers with Jeffrey Kleintop "We expect the economy and markets will stay on the course for growth in 2010," according to LPL Financial's mid-year...
Columns
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Formulas For Success: If Ever You Should Leave Me
The financial services industry in general, and advisory firms in particular, are experiencing an acute talent shortage. The best people are very much in demand,...
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Clark At Large: Can't Beat 'Em? Then Stall 'Em
By the time you read this, the Dodd-Frank financial services reform bill--The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010--will have been approved...
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The Fast Track: Affairs of the Heart
I have a girlfriend who lost her job for having an emotional affair. Here's what happened: She was the vice president of marketing for a...
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The Affluentialist: The Case of the Wealthy Celebrities and the Missing Funds
Back in April, actress Uma Thurman played the heroine in a thriller where a devious financial advisor misappropriated $60 million from clients. In this case,...
Conclusions
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Retirement Planning: Serving Gen Y Now
Advisors have always viewed the transfer of wealth--in particular high-net-worth wealth--as a legacy issue, focusing on those older clients who will be the donors of...
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Retirement Planning: News and Products
An academic study published by the University of Michigan Retirement Research Center showed that higher-income wage earners over age 50 are contributing much more to...
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The Technology Coach: Advisors: What Is Your Mobile Technology Strategy?
August is one of the best months to think about new ideas--or in some cases give unsuccessful old ideas a second try with new thinking....
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The High-Performance Coach: Preparation: The First Step in
Having just returned from a weekend of hiking Mount Washington in New Hampshire with my wife and two boys, both of whom are Boy Scouts...
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Broker/Dealer Briefing: Facebook and Twitter: Compliance Concerns Loom
When social networking Web sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace began, they were devoted to the musings of like-minded individuals--often students--or the following of...
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Broker/Dealer Briefing News and Products
Dale Brown, CEO of the Financial Services Institute (FSI), testified on June 17 before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP),...
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The Compliance Coach: Independent Advisors: Don't Violate the Protocol
I've had the privilege of assisting over 1,000 wirehouse brokers in their decision to go independent. There are two major issues for a registered representative...
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Insurance Update: Insurance Coverage Goes Green
The company that started providing businesses, and later private individuals, with green insurance has added more arrows to its quiver of green products. Fireman's Fund has...
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The Final Word: The Near Occasions of Sin
"You tell me how people get paid, and I'll tell you how people will behave." The speaker was Bob Reynolds, who has reinvented Putnam Investments...
Sidebar Stories
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Where Direction$ Is Headed
Trailblazers Peg Downey, Eleanor Blayney, and Elizabeth Jetton want to change the atmosphere and conversation to "get women into the room" for financial planning. Through...
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Will the States Be Able to Regulate Big RIAs?
State regulators and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will meet soon to iron out the details of shifting nearly 4,000 advisors from federal to...
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The FINRA Blotter
The law firm of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan completed in early July its annual review of disciplinary actions brought by FINRA in 2009. By reviewing...
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The Section 79 Solution
Robert Cheney of Westridge Wealth Strategies in Portola Valley, California, who can count many physicians and dentists as clients, has a college-savings strategy appropriate for...
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A Retirement Plan Solution
Brian Pon of Financial Connections Group, Inc., in Corte Madera, California, has a suggestion particularly for parents who will be around 59 years old while...
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Spend Wisely and Lower Your Expectations
Fred Amrein of Amrein Financial in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, is one of the advocates for wise spending. "One of the things that makes us really different,"...
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Morningstar to Rate 529 Plans
Morningstar, which has researched 529 plans for years, is now adding a qualitative rating system for the plans, and quantitative ratings on 529 options within...
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Four Things Advisors Should Know About Women
1. Women need to know if they have enough money "Women are far more likely to make a testamentary gift than a lifetime gift. They're afraid...
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Elizabeth Jetton
Elizabeth calls herself an "Episcopal Southern gal from Memphis, Tennessee," who grew up very middle class. Bored in college, she followed a spiritual bent by...
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Peg Downey
One of four girls in a low-income family, Peg had her future changed by her eighth-grade math teacher. "She asked who would go to college,...
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Eleanor Blayney
The fourth of four girls, Eleanor grew up in a "very traditional" family with a prosperous lifestyle. After graduating from Mount Holyoke, the nation's first...
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Advice to the SEC
When it comes to the fiduciary standard, and the six-month study that the SEC will conduct to determine whether brokers should be held to such...
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A Principled, Recognized and Quoted Crusader
Albert Meyer, manager of the Mirzam Capital Appreciation Fund (MCAF), is well aware of the responsibility that comes from managing other people's money. His career-long...
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Typhoid Marys
When one of your employees begins to entertain offers from other firms, a dangerous precedent can be created. Left unchecked, disenchanted people can become carriers...
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Reform's Impact on Advisors, Broker/Dealers, and Banks
The 2010 reform legislation will impact RIAs, the large banks employing wirehouse advisors, and independent broker/dealers. "This is a tough law that will also have profound...
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