Merrill, the discount brokerage. http://bit.ly/99JF3k
Fido Brags, We’ve Already Bagged $7bn in Breakaway Broker Assets
The war for assets continues, and the trend for disgruntled brokers to go to RIA land continues. TD Ameritrade tells us that its pipeline of breakaway brokers is at record levels, and Schwab says it gained 32 percent in client assets in its Advisor Services unit in the second quarter of 2010 versus last year. And Fido today announced that it bagged $7bn in new assets from 95 individual brokers and teams in the first half of 2010. Read the rest of this entry »
Baird’s CEO Purcell’s Daily Routine as Told to the FT, If You Care
Robert W. Baird is based in Milwaukee, but CEO Paul Purcell, like his brother Phil who once ran Morgan Stanley in New York, commutes from his home in Chicago — in a Chevrolet van “equipped with a desk, computer, fax, printer, TV, fridge and three phones.” Here is his daily routine as told to the FT in its Business Diary column. Read the rest of this entry »
Are Advisors Idiots, Peddling Bad Investing Advice?
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal posted a story, Ten Stock-Market Myths That Just Won’t Die. Brett Arends writes, “At times like this, your broker or financial adviser may offer words of wisdom or advice. There are standard calming phrases you will hear over and over again. But how true are they? Here are 10 that need extra scrutiny.” You probably should read the story — your clients may hve.
Bush Tax Cuts Calculator Shows How Expiration Would Affect Clients
Today, the Tax Foundation posted a “Bush Tax Cuts” calculator to show how the expiration of Bush’s tax cuts would hit individual taxpayers. The calculator can be found on www.MyTaxBurden.org and it allows taxpayers to compare 2011 income tax liability if Bush tax cuts expire or are extended. Read the rest of this entry »
Advisors Say Quality of Asset Manager Websites Affects Product Sales
Surprise! Financial advisors use the web now more than ever and the quality of an asset manager’s website matters! The better the manager’s site, the more assets it can gather. Read the rest of this entry »
Goldman Snubbing Dems in Campaign Donations
Goldman, apparently, is hedging its bets in doling out campaign contributions, the New York Post reports today. According to the Post, “Goldman Sachs executives are pulling campaign cash away from congressional Democrats in the wake of their crackdown on Wall Street and are now hedging their bets in the upcoming elections.” Read the rest of this entry »
Bullish about Housing, the Econ? This Might Change Your Mind
Barry Ritholz’s blog, The Big Picture, quotes Dhaval Joshi, chief strategist at RAB Capital, a London-based hedge fund:
“Can the U.S. economy really return to ‘business as usual’ when it has 4 million houses surplus to requirement [sic], when one out of four mortgages are in negative equity, and when by our calculation, it is burdened with $4 trillion of excess mortgage debt, equivalent to 30 percent of GDP?”
To read the full piece, go to Ritholtz’s blog and scroll down to the entry titled, “The $4 Trillion Question.”
Retail Investors Are Still Selling Equity Funds . . . A Contrary Indicator?
The ICI reports that retail investors are still selling equity mutual funds and buying bond funds. Is this a contrary indicator, i.e. that mutual fund investors get the timing wrong and the winning strategy would be to buy unpopular fund categories? Read the rest of this entry »
Financial overhaul hits farmers
Financial overhaul hits farmers: Could affect farmers’ use of derivatives. http://bit.ly/aTGID5
