Investment Advisor July 2012
Cover Story
The Spirit of Scottrade: Little Firm Pushes Big Value
If you haven’t heard of Scottrade Advisor Services, you’re forgiven. Started in 2005, it resides in the decidedly non-financial hub of St. Louis, but the institutional business is coming on strong, finding a niche among the big boys.
Features
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Pursuing Practice Excellence: The Industry Perspective
In the second of a series on the findings of our breakthrough practice management study, we gauge where and how the partner firms to advisors are spending their time and dollars on practice management.
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Create Tangible Value in Your Fiduciary Practice
Great strides have been made over the past two decades to upgrade fiduciary best practices and the standard of care in the investment business.
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Rise of Brazil and the Beautiful Games
For Brazil, the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games are about more than just sports—they’re a chance to showcase that the country is worth investing in.
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Time’s Up on DOL’s 408(b)(2) Deadline
The July 1 compliance date for the Department of Labor’s (DOL) final 408(b)(2) fee disclosure rule has finally arrived, and even though the final rule was a long time coming, covered service providers have been ramping up their compliance efforts for months.
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Adrift on the Income Stream
Perhaps the single most important issue on the minds of retirees today is how to maximize income during their golden years.
Beginnings
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I Come to Praise America
With the Fed supposedly “out of bullets” in its desire to help our own economy, we’re still rushing to Europe’s aid. It’s dollars and cents rather than guns and ammo, but it’s foreign policy nonetheless.
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SEC Funding Boost ‘Not Going to Happen’: SRO Bill Co-Sponsor
Industry trade groups and consumer advocates opposed to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus’ bill calling for a self-regulatory organization (SRO) to oversee advisors had their hopes quashed that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would receive a boost in funding in order to thwart an SRO.
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Zephyr Associates’ Will Clemens on ‘Bushwhacking’ and Delivering More for Less
Market volatility and political uncertainty—how many times have we heard that answer to the question, “What are advisors’ biggest concerns?”
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Square Peg in a Round Hole?
After a decade of tremendous growth among both retail and institutional investors, in which assets under management eclipsed the $1 trillion mark, exchange-traded funds have yet to gain a meaningful foothold in 401(k) plans, which are still dominated by traditional mutual funds.
Columns
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Women Are Not a Niche
At a recent Barron’s Top Independent Advisors conference, an audience member posed a question to me and my counterparts that seemed like a flashback to the 1970s and ‘80s.
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The Heat Rises on FINRA as Advisor SRO
Just as a government watchdog is pressuring the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to beef up its oversight of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Congress is mulling whether to give FINRA the power to oversee advisors.
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Upping the Ante
In my April 3 blog (See “What Morningstar’s FeeCheck Tells Us About AUM Fees,” AdvisorOne.com), I wrote that because FeeCheck is based primarily on data from brokers, the high AUM fee levels it references and recommends—from 1.6% to 2.5% on a vanilla portfolio—don’t reflect what’s currently being charged in the...
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The Secrets to Advisor Success
The biggest challenge to an advisor’s success is simply learning to live with it.
Conclusions
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Finding Yield in Unusual Places
In the great search for yield, Envestnet|PMC uncovered some sectors of the markets where you might not expect to find good sources of income.
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E-Delivery—Are You Doing Your Part for Your Clients?
How much have you thought about electronic delivery (e-delivery) of required documents for your clients?
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Fiduciary Duty: Best Execution Obligations
As indicated in last month’s column (see “Fiduciary Duty: Best Practices for Fulfilling Suitability Obligations,” Investment Advisor, June 2012), the United States Supreme Court, in 1963, held in SEC v. Capital Gains Research Bureau Inc. that the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 imposes a fiduciary duty on advisors by operation...
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Earth, Water and Fire
The search for natural gas and oil found through the process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is fraught with controversy.
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The Financial Upside of Succession Planning
As a smart financial advisor, you want to maximize the value of your most valuable asset—your practice.
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Who’s Not in This Issue
It’s a nice experience when you believe in something strongly and people you care about come to the same conclusion.
Sponsor
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Event Spotlight
Think Retirement Income
October 10-11, 2013
Hyatt Regency, Boston, MA
The Retirement Income Symposium has a fresh, new look…welcome to the new and improved RIA Think Retirement Conference. We’re offering the same top-notch educational and networking opportunities to all RIAs, while still paying special attention to the challenges, and opportunities, of offering retirement incomes advice.
For more information, visit www.thinkretirementincome.com.
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