HRIA,

You might want to do some reading and research and THEN come back with some questions.  Most of your questions have been posed and addressed numerous times on these boards.  You may also want to check out RIABIZ.com and RIACentral.com and do some research.  Go to some of the other industry websites and do some research (InvestmentAdvisor.com, FA Magazine, Research Mag, InvestmentNews, OnWallStreet, RegRep, etc.).  Some of your questions are so naive (No offense), that it appears you have done very little leg work on this.