Go back to Channel

Practice Management News

  • Curian Capital Adds Practice Management VP

    Keith Johnson is expected to enhance Curian’s practice management platform with new advisor-facing educational content, sales and marketing presentations, tools and resources.

  • Asked and Answered: RIA Industry at a Disruptive Crossroads

    Alex Murguia, managing principal of McLean Asset Management and CEO and founder of inStream Solutions, believes advisors should be aware of major changes underway in the planning profession—and should take proactive steps to safeguard their practices. Financial Planning talked to Murguia about his views on the outlook for RIA businesses.

  • Top 10 Traits Firms Want From New Advisor Hires

    Financial planning, when it’s done right, requires a lot of different skill sets. So what exactly are firms looking for when it’s time to bring someone new aboard? Here's what the people who actually make the personnel decisions had to say.

  • Asked and Answered: Keeping New Hires Happy

    Succession planning is preoccupying many independent advisor firms. But what are some concrete steps owners can take to make sure their firms continue to thrive far into the future? Financial Planning talked to Dave Grant, CFP, a financial planning analyst with Vantage Financial Partners Limited about how RIA firms can create a working environment that will attract — and keep — younger hires.

  • Money Belters

    The voice is one of the most powerful – and unsung – tools advisors have to get their message across to clients.

  • Organization Man

    David Strege's firm uses its unusual structure to help clients get more for less.

  • Moving Parts

    A new book, 'Practice Made (More) Perfect,' argues that workflow for advisor practices is more science than art.

  • Becoming A Lean, Mean Referral Machine

    Active and automatic ways to keep your new prospect pipeline flowing all the time.

  • 10 Steps to a Disaster Recovery Plan for Advisory Firms

    Most advisors don’t have a disaster recovery plan. We all like to think it won’t happen to us when we think of the big ones -- tornado or hurricane -- but all firms and advisors need to be prepared for anything that can cause an interruption to our business and serving our clients. Here's what you need to know to get started.

  • CFP Board Sees Bankruptcies Spike Among Planners

    It’s perhaps the ultimate irony when a financial advisor files for bankruptcy. But the CFP Board finds it is happening more and more often. Of 103 disciplinary hearings the board held last year, an estimated 25% of planners involved had filed for bankruptcy. In 2011, that number jumped to about a third.

  • Partnership Best Structure for Asset Managers, Pozen Says

    The largest and most successful asset managers are structured as partnerships, Bob Pozen, chairman emeritus of MFS Investment Management, told attendees at Fund Forum USA’s Global Fund Distribution Summit.

  • Preparing a Firm For the Future

    To be well prepared for succession, owners of financial planning practices should make sure employees are able to advance their careers within the firms. Firm owners should also learn how to manage Generation Y workers, because they’re going to be key to keeping practices alive.

  • Helping Clients Be Financially Rational

    Financial planners have several tools they can use to steer clients away from destructive behavior, said industry experts at a conference in New York on Tuesday.

  • Advisory Firms Need to Get Strategic to Remain Competitive: Pershing CEO

    Firm principals will need to manage costs and people effectively or risk falling behind their peers, Mark Tibergien, chief executive officer of Pershing Advisor Solutions, said during a Money Management Institute conference address this week.

  • Corporate Boards Weak Link in Information Security

    Most major corporations have "significant security gaps that leave sensitive board-level information open to information theft and hacking," according to the governance, risk and compliance unit of Thomson Reuters.

  • Managing Smart Growth at a Small Advisory Firm

    Managing the growth of a small financial advisory firm is tricky but important as planners face decisions about growing the client roster, adding staff and maintaining work-life balance.

  • Planners Offer Ideas, Solutions For Fee-Only Business Models

    With an increasing number of countries now banning commissions for planners, many practitioners impacted by the changes are finding fee-only services actually benefit their businesses -- if they structure fees to match their strengths, according to panelists at FPA's annual conference in San Diego.

  • Need Referrals? Listen to the "Referral Whisperer"

    “The referral whisperer,” aka Michael Brizz, held a group of 100 financial planners rapt today in San Diego when he insisted that “there are literally thousands of referrals in your client database today. Clearly the opportunity is huge.”

  • FPA Touts Student Chapters At 2011 Conference

    The Financial Planning Association, anxious to build its cache of student chapters at colleges across the country, set aside time at the organization’s annual conference in San Diego this week to instruct young attendees how to start their own chapters.

  • FPA Convention 2011: Speed Mentoring Future Financial Planners

    “It’s hard to approach someone" — a prospective employer, for example — and say, ‘I want to be an owner,’” confessed Brett Spencer, a 23-year-old masters student in financial planning from Texas Tech University.

  • Raymond James Hires Four-Member Baird Team

    Raymond James & Associates has hired a four-member financial advisor team that was previously producing more than $3.6 million in annual fees and commissions at Robert W. Baird & Co.

  • FPA 2011 Attendees Grouped Into Networking 'Communities'

    First-time attendees of the FPA Experience 2011 annual conference were eager to learn about new events this year centered around the concept of "communities" -- groups of planners of similar ages or specialties. The communities are meant to help attendees glean the most appropriate information for their practices and to better network with their peers.

  • TD Ameritrade Touts Upcoming Salesforce Product As Flexible, Open Platform

    Upping the ante in advisory firms’ technology integration battles, TD Ameritrade is touting an “open platform” as a differentiator ahead of an October launch of its Salesforce product for advisors.

  • Debt, Volatility Put Risk, Risk Officers Front & Center

    Recent market volatility has put risk management and the work of chief risk officers at the forefront of fund management, according to Joseph A. Carrier, chief risk officer at Legg Mason.

  • Library Presentations as a Route to New Clients

    Partnering with local libraries to bring financial education to interested people in her area has been a successful route to prospective clients for Darla Main, of Main Advisory, inc. in McMurray, Penn.

  • 8 Ways Financial Advisors Can Boost Client Referrals

    It’s no secret that client referrals are essential to an advisor’s growth. The hard part is implementing an effective strategy. Here's what financial advisors need to know to supercharge their referral business.

  • Advisors Share Lessons Learned After Irene

    When managing investors’ financial lives through a major storm like Hurricane Irene, keeping in touch and relying on a network of offices was key to helping advisors and their clients pull through.

  • Why Tax Planning, Preparation Is a Critical Part of Proactive Financial Planning

    Helping with clients with a wide variety of financial planning issues, including tax preparation, is a big part of the strategy at Vintage Financial Services of Ann Arbor, Mich. according to Frank Moore, the firm’s founder and chief investment officer.

  • Six Things Advisors, Firms Need to Know Before Making Any Acquisition

    More than half of fee-based financial advisors plan to sell their businesses prior to retirement, according to Tiburon Strategic Advisors, in Tiburon, Calif. That means there is ample opportunity for other firms to quickly add scale through acquisitions. Here are six critical pieces of information every advisor or firm needs to know before making any deals.

  • Helping Women in Transition Make Smart Financial Choices

    Women who are in the middle of a transition -- whether it be a divorce, the death of a spouse, or the inheritance of a large sum of money -- often need specialized financial advice, but many of them may not know where to go, says Kimberly Howard, founder and owner of KJH Financial Services in Needham, Mass.