Do We Need Finra As An SRO For RIAs?
New legislation to anoint a self-regulatory organization for RIAs has sparked the predictable firestorm. Compounding the controversy is the fact that brokerage organizations have endorsed Finra as the...
View ArticleJeb Bush: Prepare For Taxmageddon; What Elizabeth Warren Doesn't Get
Whether President Obama wins or loses, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush notes that there is "ample evidence" our current president is "no Bill Clinton."
View ArticlePrivate Equity Firms Swarm RIA Space For Acquisitions
Several sources said that Summit Partners had retained Goldman Sachs to explore the sale of Focus Financial Partners. Word has it the proposed Lee-Edelman transaction has piqued the interest of private...
View ArticleThis Business Remains Deeply Divided
Despite the FPA's best efforts to give the advisory profession one voice, the organization's RIA and brokerage contingents continue to drift further and further apart.
View ArticlePossible Solutions To Geezer Advisors Ruining The Business For Young
He may only have been making his point with hyperbole, but when Mark Tibergien told attendees at Pershing’s annual Insite conference that older advisors were not only burning out younger colleagues in...
View ArticleInvesting At Commodities Brokerages Is Nuts
The stunning disappearance of client funds at three commodities brokerages—Refco, MF Global and now Peregrine—over the last seven years has to be prompting many advisors to ask why a client should ever...
View ArticleSanford Weill Calls For Bank Breakup, Glass-Steagall Renewal
I nearly spat up a few bits of Cheerios at the boob tube in disbelief this morning when I heard former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill call for breaking up the nation’s biggest banks and essentially...
View ArticleGeorge Will On Entitlement Crisis, Welfare State Death Spiral
The United States is replicating the mistakes of the 1930s' New Deal and causing “the death spiral of the welfare state,” where taxes must go up to pay ever-increasing entitlement costs, George Will...
View ArticleIt’s Not Just Facebook: Is Social Media Finance Toast?
It’s not just that another 1.44 billion shares of Facebook will become available for sale between now and November. Or that Facebook, with its stock down 50 percent, remains one of the...
View ArticleWhen A CFP Licensee Files For Bankruptcy
The hard line the CFP Board is adopting with bankrupt CFP licensees is a sign of the profession’s increasing maturity.
View ArticleBen Stein, Ray Lucia And The Annuities Gang
It's hard to believe that California advisor Ray Lucia—now facing SEC charges related to his "Buckets of Money" investment strategy—really saved Ben Stein from suicide "many a night," as Stein has...
View ArticleBlack Swans: A 28% Chance Of Speaker Pelosi?
Intrade makes the odds of a President Romney 26 percent, almost the same as the odds for a Speaker Pelosi, 28 percent. Yikes!
View ArticlePity The Poor Banks
Now the regulators fine them! I never thought I’d write a piece criticizing regulators for belatedly piling on the big banks and fining them half a decade after the financial crisis in which they...
View ArticleMeredith Whitney Sees Boom In Central U.S. Corridor
This energy- and agriculture-rich region characterized by low tax rates and debt levels is poised to grow at a much faster rate than other parts of the country where tax rates and debt levels are much...
View ArticleLiz Ann Sonders Asks: Is The Stock Market Home To The New Vigilantes?
Judging from Wednesday’s 312-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the equity market could be replacing the bond market as the new “vigilantes” who try to drive some sense into Washington,...
View ArticleSchwab, KKR's Roberts Voice Concern On Obama Tone, Optimism On U.S.
Discount brokerage pioneer Chuck Schwab and KKR co-founder George Roberts voiced frustration with President Obama's suddenly strident post-election tone but indicated they thought the U.S. economy...
View ArticlePrinciple-Based Regulation
Mary Schapiro's appointment as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission is already triggering lots of whispering, little of it positive, in the financial advisor community. Some independent RIAs...
View ArticleIs The Next Bubble In The Works?
Speaking in Boca Raton, Fla., at the 2nd Annual Inside ETFs conference on Monday, economist Ed Yardeni told attendees that since there are SDS and SRS ETFs, maybe someone should create an SOS ETF.
View ArticleJack Brennan In The Wings?
When rumors surfaced that President-elect Obama would nominate Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary in late November, the stock market rallied 5% in a few hours. Since then, Geithner's role in...
View ArticleMore Scams Expected
Hardly a day goes by without another report of a hedge fund manager disappearing, a broker jumping out of a plane and faking his death or a hedge fund closing with virtually zero assets. As Warren...
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