Charles Schwab & Co. is taking advantage of the financial crisis by attempting to lure brokers from Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley and other wirehouse brokerage firms to go independent and use Schwab as their custodian.
Following this weekend’s turmoil on Wall Street, financial-sector job cuts may hit new heights, according to a report from Challenger Gray & Christmas Inc. of Chicago.
“There will be massive defections of clients and advisers,” said Liz Nesvold, managing partner of Silver Lane Advisors LLC of New York. “The wirehouse model, which was damaged, is now broken.”
Lehman Brothers is verging on collapse, even as Bank of America has reportedly bought Merrill Lynch for $44 billion; AIG hammering out its own rescue strategy.
Handful of firms peddled equity swaps, stock loans to clients; 'IRS pussyfooted on this.'
In a market roiled with trouble and strife, advisers who keep assets under custody with Schwab Institutional appear to be picking up clients from wirehouses and do-it-yourself investors at a prodigious rate.
Two of the brokerage industry's most prominent wealth managers have dumped their wirehouse broker-dealers, instead opting to become independent registered investment advisers, with more well-known advisers perhaps soon to take the same path.
Despite continued efforts to curtail litigation when brokers change firms, departing reps are still being sued, and some say that recent developments suggest the harassment won't stop anytime soon.
Wirehouse brokers have had to respond to many changes in the industry in the past decade.
The big Wall Street firms have been talking a good game about offering advice, but how much worthwhile information will they actually provide in the next decade?
T. Rowe Price Group’s board of directors has approved a 15 million share increase in the company's stock buyback plan.
For the first time, starting in July, Citigroup Inc.'s managed-account platforms will start advising Smith Barney reps and Citi private bankers on when to buy and sell specific money managers and mutual funds for their clients.
Wealth management executives at Citigroup and UBS, two of the financial institutions hardest hit by the subprime loan crisis, are working overtime on damage control to protect their lucrative franchises.
"Rep-as-adviser" programs are gaining interest among brokerage firms as an alternative to the banned fee-based brokerage accounts, according to a report by Cerulli Associates Inc.
Several wirehouse firms have begun pushing their financial advisers to talk to clients in more depth about health care issues in retirement, but at least one firm, UBS Financial Services Inc., is avoiding the topic because of liability concerns.
Legislation is moving forward in the Senate that would allow financial services companies to keep their industrial banks.
Christopher Poch will run the private trust group at the firm.
The Investment Management Consultants Association has been attracting more independent planners and advisers.
