April 4, 2024 • Eric Rasmussen ; There’s a concept in evolution called “punctuated equilibrium,” when long periods of stability and slow change are interrupted by cataclysms such as rising sea levels or mass extinction events that cause new species to branch off. Think of the meteor that brought about the decimation of the dinosaurs. Scientists now say that it also wiped out some competitive mammal groups, allowing our own mammalian forebears to bulk up and diversify, to be unleashed int...
There are many types of independent financial planners, including registered investment advisors (RIAs) and broker-dealers. Learn which one is better.
April 1, 2022 • Eric Rasmussen ; As Jodi Perry, president of Raymond James’s independent contractor division sees it, the history of the broker-dealer industry is only half-written. In the last decade, the business has seen a wave of consolidation as firms with huge capital resources gobble each other up, leaving smaller firms to try navigating a rocky course of fee compression, regulation and a brutal war for talent—(especially talents with the biggest books of business). According to Cer...
April 1, 2020 • Christopher Robbins ; Being an independent broker-dealer isn’t what it used to be. A series of regulatory, technological and consumer-driven disruptions are challenging independent broker-dealers (IBDs), says Adam Antoniades, CEO of Cetera Financial Group, and smaller firms may become the victims of change. “The environment continues to favor firms of scale,” says Antoniades. To view FA's 2020 broker-dealer ranking, Click here . To view FA's 2020 extended broker-dealer ra...
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When looking for someone to manage your money, you may hear about independent broker-dealers. Here's what that means.
April 1, 2023 • Eric Rasmussen ; As markets swooned and interest rates surged in 2022, at least one industry was likely quietly rejoicing: Broker-dealers, which have been facing combative regulators and fighting trench warfare with the RIA space, got a big reprieve last year. Higher interest rates mean millions of dollars in revenue that go directly to the bottom lines at independent B-D firms, all due to the client money they hold in cash sweep accounts. If you’re a company like LPL or Raym...
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April 1, 2019 • Eric Rasmussen ; They say a horse made by committee is a camel, but in the independent broker-dealer (IBD) space, there are many ways to build the perfect beast—and with lots of client assets at stake and wealth to be transferred to a new generation, a lot of people with big pockets have decided this is the place to build it. Overall despite a stock market decline in the fourth quarter of 2018 that erased all of the year’s gains, broker-dealers had a good year. The last 10 ...
April 1, 2021 • Eric Rasmussen ; The Covid-19 pandemic frayed the social and economic bonds that the world takes for granted, shone a light on vast inequality, revealed who had the resources to carry economic burdens and who were the most vulnerable to depredation. And that’s just the independent broker-dealers (IBDs). To view FA's 2021 broker-dealer ranking, Click here . To view FA's 2021 extended broker-dealer ranking, Click here. Here, as in many areas, the virus exacerbated trends alread...