Bank Investment Consultant articles from June 2005

Bank Investment Consultant archives from June 2005

What Regulators Want.
June 1, 2005... The regulatory pendulum perpetually swings. When the market is good and everyone's making money, calls for retribution are rare-I remember analyst reports in Enron's heyday basically saying, "We don't know how it works, but it does!" Now,...

Fee Accounts Trigger Suitability Concerns.
June 1, 2005... As the brokerage industry moves from a predominantly commission-based business to a more fee-based financial planning business, the rules are constantly changing. Bank reps need to stay alert to these changes to know when and how to handle...

Banks Eye Registered Hedge Funds.
June 1, 2005... Hedge funds are the elixir of the world of alternative investments, which high-net-worth investors use to diversify their portfolios and, they hope, to bolster returns. Given the typically conservative nature of bank customers, bank...

Product News.
June 1, 2005... American Express Financial Group has launched the Accumulation Protector Benefit rider for use with its Select variable annuity. At the end of 10 years of investment, clients who purchase the rider will receive the greater of their original...

Tools and Resources.
June 1, 2005... The American College and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors have created the Financial Services Specialist designation. The curriculum for the program consists of six courses and covers topics such as understanding the...

Calendar.
June 1, 2005... June 6-8 Forum 2005 Managed Funds Association Chicago (202) 367-1140, or www.mfainfo.org June 12-15 Regulatory Compliance Conference American Bankers Association Baltimore (800) BANKERS, or...

The Million-Dollar Woman: Bank of the West's Sara Aujla on her plans to become her bank's first female seven-figure producer.
June 1, 2005... Sara Aujla has big plans. She wants to be the first female financial consultant at Bank of the West's brokerage subsidiary, BancWest Investment Services (BWIS), to break the $1 million production barrier. Only two other BWIS reps, both male,...

Reaching out to Small Businesses: Small-business owners are a lucrative but underserved market for bank reps.
June 1, 2005... The U.S. Small Business Administration says there are 25 million small-business owners nationwide. And financial advisers who target them say they're an excellent source of business across many products and services. One reason? A lot of...

Zions' Bold New Mission: The bank puts its reps on salary, offers products with lower fees, and launches aggressive online services.
June 1, 2005... At the beginning of this year, Zions Bancorp adopted a strategy that may send shivers down the spines of the industry's commissioned brokers-the successful ones, at least: The bank dropped commissions for its financial consultants in favor of a...

Filling the Revenue Gap: Indexed annuities offer bank reps an opportunity to boost flagging sales of fixed and variable products.
June 1, 2005... Indexed annuities could be a godsend for bank investment reps. Sales are declining on fixed annuities because of low interest rates, and on variable annuities because of regulatory scrutiny. Indexed annuities, which offer customers some upside...

Mastering the Basics: IMCA lays the foundations for its 12-part series on industry best practices.
June 1, 2005... The Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA) is now offering its Certified Investment Management Analyst designation through the bank channel as well as through brokerages, and has teamed up with BIC to provide our readers with a...

Enter the Outsourcers: Companies are springing up to take both back- and front-office functions of wealth management.
June 1, 2005... By most estimates, managed accounts will grow briskly over the next five years, with the overall value of the industry eventually amounting to more than $1 trillion-the kind of business almost any red-blooded American capitalist would want to...

A Place in the Sun: Arizona is fast becoming the retirement capital of the Southwest. Here's how two local reps are tailoring their businesses to that market.
June 1, 2005... Arizona was the fastest growing state in the 1990s, according to its Department of Commerce, and by 2050 its population is set to hit 11.2 million, double its 2000 headcount. The good news for bank-based financial advisers is that many of the...