Investment Advisor September 2012

A Changed Industry: Insights From the 2012 Top Wealth Managers Survey

By Philip Palaveev and Jonathan McQuade

The wealth management industry is rapidly changing and has entered into the mature stages of its evolution.

Forces for Good: Biggest Trends and Challenges for Broker-Dealers

By Chip Kispert, Marshall Levin

Albridge and Beacon Strategies revisit their 2010 survey to identify two forces that are pressuring the broker-dealer industry and how BDs are responding.

The Baby Boomer Bust-Up: Advising ‘Gray Divorcés’

By Olivia Mellan

They’ve been called the "gray divorcés," and their numbers are growing. Are you ready to serve them well?

Life Partners: Grow Your Practice With an Insurance Partner

By Kevin Kimbrough

Between the ongoing market volatility and the rapid evolution in insurance products, it’s easy to see why many financial advisors aren’t talking to their clients about life insurance.

New China: Investing in a Growing Global Leader

By Savita Iyer-Ahrestani, AdvisorOne

Fifteen years ago, when Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, first visited China, the swath of land across from Shanghai’s historic waterfront, the Bund, just lay there.

On a Tear: How Altegris Made Alternatives Pay Off

By John Sullivan, AdvisorOne

Maintaining the proper work/family balance ain’t easy, something Jon Sundt knows firsthand.

The Meaning of Life

By John Sullivan, AdvisorOne

September is Life Insurance Awareness Month … whoa, wait; stop. Stay with me.

Contemplating Capacity: Where Do We Go From Here?

By Ryan Issakainen

Over the past two decades, the ETF industry has grown to asset levels that few predicted when the first U.S.-listed ETF was launched in 1993.

Incapital’s Tom Ricketts on Sustainable Investing—And, Yes, the Cubs

By Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne

When he’s not busy being the owner of the Chicago Cubs, Tom Ricketts is overseeing Incapital, which underwrites and distributes fixed income securities and structured notes through more than 700 broker-dealers, institutions, advisors and wealth managers.

Remedy to Boost Advisor Exams Out of Reach This Year

By Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne

Two important issues for the advisory industry will remain unresolved until next year: how to boost investment advisor exams—either through a self-regulatory organization (SRO) or via user fees—as well as a rule to put brokers under a fiduciary mandate.

Shedding Some Skin: Advisor Growth in the Year of the Snake

By Mark Tibergien

The most effective strategic planners focus on the four cornerstones of business success. Let’s examine the planning process to identify some potential improvements in 2013, which the Chinese Zodiac designates as the Year of the Snake.

A Chat With CFP Board CEO Kevin Keller: Fiduciary, SRO and His Priorities

By Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne

Providing the SEC with the resources it needs “is the best solution" to the advisor exam problem, says Kevin Keller, but finding a way to ensure advisors face more exam scrutiny—through an SRO or user fees paid to the SEC—will be a “long-term issue.”

From Lost Stock Decade, an Asset Class Is Born

By Bob Clark, AdvisorOne

One way to manage risk? Think of volatility as an "asset class" in itself.

Stressed for Success, Pt. 2: Helping Employees to Perform at Their Peak

By Angie Herbers

Last month, I wrote about the relation between workplace stress and job performance. This month, how firm owners can use the Yerkes-Dodson stress curve to help keep their employees near peak performance.

How to Evaluate All-In-One Systems

By Dan Skiles

The technology products available for advisors today offer more features and solutions than ever before.

The New and (Not) Improved Exam Process

By Thomas D. Giachetti

Has the examination process changed post-Madoff? You betcha!

Go Green for Growth

By Virginie Maisonneuve

In today’s extremely tough and uncertain economic environment, the battle against climate change is getting fewer inches of column space.

Too Much of a Good Thing?

By Marlene Y. Satter, AdvisorOne

In mid-July, John Ryan of Ryan Insurance Strategy Consultants in Greenwood Village, Colo., advised clients that extensive changes were coming for Genworth’s long-term care insurance product line and for its underwriting.

The Human Touch in Action

By James J. Green, AdvisorOne

First, let me state up front: I am no Luddite.

The 2012 Broker-Dealers of the Year: How You Picked Them; Where They Placed

By John Sullivan, AdvisorOne

Investment Advisor readers' choices for the 22nd annual Broker-Dealers of the Year: those BDs that placed second and third in the balloting, along with details on the voting process.

What Reps Want

By John Sullivan, AdvisorOne, James J. Green, AdvisorOne

Of the products not offered through their current broker-dealer, 194 reps responded they would like:

Where Would Reps Go? Findings From the 2012 Broker-Dealers of the Year Voting

By John Sullivan, AdvisorOne, James J. Green, AdvisorOne

Dodd-Frank: Here to Stay

By Melanie Waddell, AdvisorOne

If Republicans “run the table in this year’s elections, it is certainly possible that some of the more controversial provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act may be revisited,” said David Tittsworth, executive director of the Investment Adviser Association (IAA) in Washington.