by Patrick M. Kelly | Jan 2, 2013 | Financial Services Industry, Wall Street, wirehouses
Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Wells Fargo—need to pay close attention to two areas in order to boost their market share: profitability and financial advisor compensation. “The need for the large firms to increase their hold on the market comes as studies...
by Patrick M. Kelly | Oct 2, 2012 | Wall Street
Founded in 1979, with primary offices in Woodside and San Mateo, California and Camas, Washington, along with a subsidiary in London, Fisher Investments is one of the largest independent investment advisors with billions of dollars under management. Founder and CEO...
by Patrick M. Kelly | Sep 28, 2012 | Financial Services Industry, Wall Street
Acquiring Morgan Keegan last April, along with the ability to retain a large percentage of their financial advisors, appears to have paid off for Raymond James, who announced an 8% increase in fees and commissions to $250 million during August, 2012. This is up 8%...
by Patrick M. Kelly | Sep 26, 2012 | Financial Services Industry, Wall Street
The end of an era and a bit of history… In 1938, with the merger of two brokerage firms founded by Philadelphians, Charles D. Barney and Edward B. Smith, the modern day Smith Barney was born. Thus began their long history of acquisitions. Smith Barney snatched...
by Patrick M. Kelly | Jul 31, 2012 | Financial Advisors, Wall Street
The nation’s largest independent broker-dealer, LPL Financial set out to improve their Model Wealth Portfolio platform, already highly successful. To become more efficient, the firm added more strategists to the platform, including their own research arm, Morningstar....
by Patrick M. Kelly | Jul 27, 2012 | Breakaway Brokers, Wall Street
During its third quarter of the last fiscal year, 120 brokers joined RIA TD Ameritrade, up 50% from a year earlier. For all of last year, TD Ameritrade attracted 348 breakaway brokers, a trend, which managing director of sales Pete Dorsey expects to continue, “because...