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BlogsThe Smart Advisor
The Bad Client
By Frances McMorris
February 18, 2011
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Here is a case study from John Harbour, an ethics instructor with IMCA and a wealth manager at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, about an advisor who has to walk a tightrope between two of his clients:
Your client of many years (Harbour calls this client S. Lagree) trusts you implicitly. After a recent quarterly performance review meeting, Lagree tells you, his advisor, about his plans for a hostile takeover of a competing firm. He intends to “buy” the clients of the firm, replace the products with those of his current company and fire the employees. There are significant questions about the legal methods and Lagree confirms that he intends to bend the rules.
You, the advisor, realize that the chief executive officer of the firm targeted by Lagree is also one of your clients. What do you do?
First, this sounds like the right time to confer with compliance. Harbour notes that you (as the advisor) have as fiduciary duty to both clients. You, at least can tell Lagree that you don’t agree with his methods. But, client confidentiality is a factor as well.
So, I ask, what do you think is the right course of action?
But Harbour also says that you should take a close look at your client and ask yourself this: Do you have clients who bend the rules? If so, it may be time for a housecleaning. That will preserve your integrity and your firm’s as well.
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Growth -- the kind measured in revenue and profits -- is the ultimate goal for the entire brokerage industry. As On Wall Street editor-in-chief Frances McMorris points out, figuring out how to achieve these goals while dealing with constant change is what firms like Raymond James and its competitors are now learning to do on the fly.
While there may be investing opportunities in the markets, the weak housing market and unemployment hovering just above 9% are the issues that concern the nation and that are depressing the president’s poll numbers. And, voters -- including those without jobs and those who want to look for better ones --are getting mighty impatient.
While there may be investing opportunities in the markets, the weak housing market and unemployment hovering just above 9% are the issues that concern the nation and that are depressing the president’s poll numbers. And, voters -- including those without jobs and those who want to look for better ones --are getting mighty impatient.
I hate mixed messages but it seems there is finally some good news on the employment front. According to the Department of Labor this morning, non-farm payroll employment added 244,000 jobs in April, with the private sector seeing job growth of 268,000.
While that figure exceeded expectations, the unemployment rate rose to 9%. Some experts explained that increase to the people who weren’t looking for jobs now resuming their job-hunt. …
Advisors should be building on their strengths, their interests and, of course, their talents. The best and the brightest advisors have one thing in common: Each one has found his or her specialty or strength and constructed a platform for success.
Just when the advisory community was hoping that it had put Bernie Madoff behind it, federal authorities announced that two of the disgraced financier’s lieutenants have been indicted on criminal charges and are also facing a civil complaint from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service announced earlier this week that it has withdrawn the John Doe summons in the UBS AG scandal in which the U.S. demanded that the company hand over…
Just when branch managers thought their jobs couldn’t get any more complicated, Mary Schapiro says that her agency is looking at regulating broker pay.
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There is a 20-year age difference between Shelly Church and Ilona Sawin, yet they have found enough common ground to form their own financial advisory team at Raymond James & Associates.
At a gala fundraiser, Wall Street shows that money isn’t its only concern but that it can show generosity and patriotism in helping the children of fallen soldiers and wounded warriors.
If money is the root of all evil, then Wall Street certainly provides the tree and branches—at least that appears to be the perspective of filmmaker Charles Ferguson.
Frances McMorris was named editor-in-chief of ON WALL STREET in February 2008, after serving as executive editor since December 2004. She also created and serves as the host of AdvisorTV, an online video interview show appearing at onwallstreet.com.
From indictments to verdicts and appeals, Ms. McMorris has covered many major, high-profile cases in both federal and state courts as a legal affairs reporter for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Daily News, Newsday and The New York Law Journal. The cases that she has covered include: the seditious conspiracy trial of Sheik Oman Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric convicted of being the spiritual mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center; the constitutional battle over the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy; the Crown Heights riot murder trial; federal racketeering cases against violent gangs; the Long Island pet cemetery trial and several securities fraud and insider trading cases, among others.
The legal issues she has written about are diverse and numerous, ranging from economic espionage to employment discrimination rulings and the first story to report that there is no expectation of privacy for employee emails written in the workplace.
Ms. McMorris is a 1993 graduate of Fordham University School of Law and admitted to the New York and New Jersey bars. She has appeared on the former CNNfn to give expert commentary on trials.
She also served as president of the Newswomen’s Club of New York for three years while working as an assistant managing editor at The Daily Deal in New York.
ON WALL STREET magazine has a circulation of more than 90,000—reaching financial advisors and brokers at the most prestigious brokerage firms who serve high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth investors.
FEED
Frances McMorris was named editor-in-chief of ON WALL STREET in February 2008, after serving as executive editor since December 2004. She also created and serves as the host of AdvisorTV, an online video interview show appearing at onwallstreet.com. 
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