Bank Investment Consultant articles from March 2004

Bank Investment Consultant archives from March 2004

Forget Wealth Management.
March 1, 2004... Yes, forget wealth management. That's contradictory guidance in an issue whose cover story is about wealth management. But let me explain. Wealth management is currently the holy grail of the retail securities business, especially at...

Bank Brokers See Little Fallout From Mutual Fund Scandals.
March 1, 2004... The tumult that has engulfed the mutual fund industry over the past several months - scandals involving late-trading, market timing, excessive fees and poor disclosure - would seem to have created major headaches for bank reps. But instead...

Morgan, Bank One Differ in Approaches To Retail Brokerage and Insurance.
March 1, 2004... Combining the investment and insurance businesses of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Chicago's Bank One Corp. will bring together the former's $277 million in 2002 insurance revenue and $515 million in assets under management with Bank One's $442...

New York Life Wins Dalbar Honors.
March 1, 2004... New York Life took top honors for its pre- and post-sale support for bank, wirehouse and independent reps in an annual service ranking of financial companies conducted by Dalbar, the Boston-based consulting firm. Despite its recent...

Moody's: Annuities' Growth Threatens Insurers.
March 1, 2004... Conditions may be improving for the life insurance industry, but it still has a distance left to run before its outlook really improves, according to a recent report from Moody's Investor Services. The ratings agency downgraded the life...

Product News.
March 1, 2004... Fred Alger Management has launched a China-U.S. Growth Fund that invests in Chinese, Hong Kong, U.S. and other Asian or multinational companies expected to benefit from China's economic expansion. It imposes a 2% redemption fee on trades made...

Tools and Resources.
March 1, 2004... Ibbotson Associates has introduced a Decades of Performance wall poster, brochure and PowerPoint module. Each presentation format illustrates the performance of stocks, bonds, bills and inflation in a historical context decade by decade. The...

Last Minute Tax Ideas: There's still time to consider SEPs, Roth IRA conversions and other ways to ease Uncle Sam's tax bite.
March 1, 2004... With April 15 just weeks away, 'tis the season to be taxed and to talk about last-minute tax strategies - at least among banks' financial consultants and their clients. Recently passed tax laws offer investors plenty of breaks and just as...

March Calendar.
March 1, 2004... March 4 Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Conference Securities Industry Association Grand Hyatt New York New York City (212) 608-1500 or www.sia.com March 7-9 Best Practices in Retail Financial Services ...

Switching to Fees at B of A: Arizona rep Brian Friedman is converting his book, and facing the challenges - and rewards - of fewer commissions.
March 1, 2004... Like many advisors, Brian Friedman, a senior vice president of Bank of America's investment services subsidiary and financial advisor in Phoenix, Ariz., is an advocate of fee-based business. And, like most advisors who are making the transition...

Brian Friedman At A Glance.
March 1, 2004... 2002 AUM: approx. $240 million 2003 AUM: approx. $315 million 2003 production: $786,226 2004 projected production: $1,005,000 Clients: approx. 400 Licenses held: 7, 65, 63 Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights...

Cashing In On Wealth Management: Over time, the industry's mass migration to wealth management should help bank reps prosper. But what about the short term?
March 1, 2004... For many banks and their reps, wealth management is an evolving business strategy. While still not sure precisely what such a strategy fully encompasses, banks believe that trying to serve their clients' total wealth management needs on a fee...

Hybrids Are Here to Stay: Like it or not, hybrid sales platforms are becoming a permanent part of the bank brokerage landscape.
March 1, 2004... For many brokers, the forced pairing by bank management of dedicated sales professionals and platform reps seems to be a shotgun marriage. But in the three years or so that these arrangements have become more prevalent, divorces have been rare....

Business Warms Up in Illinois.
March 1, 2004... Illinois is emerging from winter's deep freeze. And business at bank brokerage operations there is leading the way, according to three reps BIC spoke with recently: Dan Bouska, a vice president and financial advisor at Baxter Credit Union's...