Bank Investment Consultant articles from May 2006

Bank Investment Consultant archives from May 2006

Tapping the CD Flow.
May 1, 2006... Certificates of deposit (CDs) are growing ever more popular in the bank channel, thanks largely to rising rates. And these aren't just $1,000 accounts, either. According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, CDs holding $100,000...

2005: Another Tough Year for Most Banks.
May 1, 2006... Bank investment sales were dismal to modest last year. There were exceptions: community banks such as $470 million PeoplesBank, based in York, Penn., which saw investment fee income-mainly from mutual funds and variable annuities-jump 26% in...

Top 10 Banks in Investment Income in 2005 (Dollars in millions).
May 1, 2006... (part 1 of 2) Rank 2005 Investment Income Bank 1 $1,577.31 Bank of America Corp 2 $558.00 Wachovia Corp 3 $455.35 J.P. Morgan Chase 4 $310.05 ...

Program Managers Tout Personal Challenges Over Pay.
May 1, 2006... A first-of-its-kind survey of bank investment program managers' activities reveals how real life often falls short of ideals, and vice versa, and that-believe it or not-the job's challenges outweigh paychecks in terms of job satisfaction. ...

Primevest Urges Clients to Adopt Fee Business.
May 1, 2006... Primevest leaned heavily on its clients to adopt more fee business in its Las Vegas Primevest Management conference in early March. The third-party marketer has a clear motive: it's parent, ING Advisors Network, has invested "significant" funds...

Curian Staffs Up for SMA Push.
May 1, 2006... Curian Capital is ramping up its sales effort on separately managed accounts that offer low enough investment minimums to be affordable even to mutual fund investors. The Denver-based firm is increasing its wholesaler staff by 35% and...

Morningstar: Some Funds Are Getting Too Big.
May 1, 2006... A relatively small number of funds have attracted a large share of capital in recent years, and that could mean trouble, according to Russel Kinnel, an analyst with Morningstar in Chicago. In fact, in the past six years, the number of funds...

Product News.
May 1, 2006... The American Stock Exchange has listed five additional ETFs: Deutsche Bank's Liquid Commodity Index; PowerShares' Zacks Small-Cap; and State Street Global's SPDR Biotech, SPDR Homebuilders and SPDR Semiconductor. (800) 843-2639, or...

Tools & Resources.
May 1, 2006... Morningstar has unveiled five categories and one broad asset class as additions to its mutual fund classification system. The new categories include Long-Short, Inflation-Protected Bond and three Target-Date offerings. The new Balanced asset...

Calendar.
May 1, 2006... May 24 Medicare Risk-Adjustment Seminar Financial Research Associates. Minneapolis (800) 280.8440, or www.frallc.com June 4-7 Operations and Technology Conference National Association for Variable Annuities ...

Doing It the Hard Way: Why First Interstate's Kerry Hatcher left behind a $35 million book to start anew back home.
May 1, 2006... Kerry Hatcher, a trust and investment specialist and market manager at First Interstate Financial Services, part of First Interstate Bank in Billings, Mont., knows about sacrifice-and about triumphing over adversity. Committed both to his...

The ETF Explosion: They look like index funds, they trade like stocks, and advisers are using them in a million ways to round out their clients' diversified portfolios.
May 1, 2006... Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may still be snapping at the heels of their behemoth cousins, mutual funds, but their rise in popularity, from virtually nothing in 1996 to $300 billion 10 years later is no less astounding. With this growth has...

How ETF Providers Hope to Beat the Index.
May 1, 2006... ETF providers don't make up the indexes on which to base their funds. Rather, the NASD requires them to use a third party to design the index, although they can set the criteria. PowerShares partners with the American Stock Exchange, which...

Simplicity Guaranty'd: This large regional bank has stuck to its guns-so far-on its platform-only program.
May 1, 2006... It's not uncommon for growing banks to dump their platform programs for full-service investment operations, but Guaranty Bank is different. The Austin, Texas-based institution has a large and thriving platform-only program, which won an award...

Finding Your Niche: It can be hard to break in, but once you've cracked it, serving a clique can mean big business.
May 1, 2006... The world is an almost bottomless pit of subcultures and specialties. Some of these can be gems for financial planners looking to find a customer niche. There are college affiliations, of course, and professional ones, such as lawyers or...

Quantifying the Benefits of Diversification.
May 1, 2006... This article, which describes methods for quantifying the benefits of diversifying an investment portfolio, is part of a series of monthly columns presenting lessons from a certificate course offered by the Investment Management Consultants...

Integrating Trust and Retail Brokerage: These two departments often are at odds, which serves neither clients nor the bank.
May 1, 2006... Recently, many banks have taken steps to integrate their trust and retail brokerage groups. Usually they do this in order to leverage access to new customers, provide a broader range of products and services, streamline the internal referral...

Big Sky Business: Montana reps' operations reflect a rapidly changing population as the state shifts gears.
May 1, 2006... Montana, nicknamed the treasure state, is home to reps John Bailey, an Investment Centers of America rep at Sterling Savings Bank in Sterling; Tom Cote, a branch manager and LPL rep at Independence Bank in Scobey; and Jim Turcotte, a Raymond...