William Byrnes' Tax, Wealth, and Risk Intelligence

William Byrnes (Texas A&M) tax & compliance articles

Posts Tagged ‘AdvisorOne’

FINRA Sets Regulatory Sights on Structured Products

Posted by William Byrnes on January 11, 2012


The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is targeting structured products over concerns about unsuitable sales to retail customers. In an exclusive interview with AdvisorOne (a Summit Business Media product) Bradley Bennett, enforcement chief at FINRA, said that the agency’s caseload on the recent financial crisis has eased up, and the agency is ready to renew its focus on structured products.

Structured products are often marketed to retail customers without an adequate explanation of their associated risks.  “They purport to give the alchemy of lowering risk while increasing yield,” Bennett said, “but the risk needs to be explained” both to the broker-dealer’s “sales force and customers, and be suitable given the customer’s financial circumstances.”

Read this complete analysis of the impact at AdvisorFX (sign up for a free trial subscription with full access to all the planning libraries and client presentations if you are not already a subscriber).

For previous coverage of structured products in Advisor’s Journal, see SEC Warns Investors about Principal Protected Notes (CC 11-117).

For in-depth analysis of structured products, see Advisor’s Main Library: 7774. What is a structured product? How are structured products taxed?

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Tips for Advisors to Get Started in the Social Media Market

Posted by William Byrnes on April 25, 2011


If you’re one of the two out of three financial professionals who are out of the social media loop, you could be missing opportunities to boost your advisory business. Although the SEC and FINRA are cracking down on firms for social media misuse, there’s still a wealth of untapped marketing potential for advisors brave enough forge into this new territory.

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can be used to build opportunities – if you know how to use them to the best of your advantage. Clara Shih, author of The Facebook Era, believes that social media marketing, with training and best practices, can be a formula for success. Shih offers tips to help advisors gain success by using social media as a tool to grow their advisory business by connecting with prospective clients and strengthening existing client relationships.

Read this two-page article by linking to AdvisorOne – a National Underwriters Summit Business open-access original content wealth management news portal.

Posted in Wealth Management | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

 
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