Commonwealth Financial Network snagged the top spot for the second time in a row in J.D. Power and Associates’ 2012 U.S. Financial Advisor Satisfaction Study, with an overall satisfaction score of 917 out of 1,000.
When LPL Financial, a self-clearing independent broker/dealer, rolled Pacific Life's broker/dealers onto its self-clearing platform in 2009, many advisors protested. But for Jennifer Tanck, president of Independent Financial Partners, an LPL...
In our second IBD Report Card, we examine the grades advisors gave their firms, and offer a look at one major trend that will shape the indie landscape in the next few years: consolidation.
The Financial Services Institute has more than doubled its advisor membership from 15,000 in 2011 to 34,000 today. Many firms are subsidizing the cost of membership for their advisors, the institute says, and it reflects the fact that advisory...
Margin pressure, upheaval in advisory business models, lack of certainty in the market – most of the current trends in the wealth management industry can be traced back to the global financial crisis in 2008. Three years after the world fell apart...
Cetera Financial Group announced plans Monday to acquire Genworth Financial’s broker/dealer, Genworth Financial Investment Services (GFIS), expanding its network of broker/dealers. The move will add around 1,800 financial advisors who focus...
For 23 years, Andrew Costanzo, of Costanzo Financial Group, focused on preserving principal for his clients using fixed instruments, a strategy that lends itself nicely to the tenets of buy-and-hold. But Costanzo doesn't want to have to tell his...
