In pre-colonial days, headhunting was the practice of taking a person’s head after killing him or her. Some experts theorize that the practice stemmed from the belief that the head contained “soul matter” or life force, which could be harnessed through its capture. In sports, the term refers to a baseball pitcher who aims at a player’s head. It is also a video game for PlayStation 2, a German heavy metal band, a novel by Michael Slade, and a black and white silent film produced in 1914.

We know the term, of course, as slang for an employment recruiter, sometimes referred to as an executive search consultant. I think the sociologists were on to something with their theories because some of the recruiters I know in this business dedicate themselves with such gusto that finding the perfect match becomes the “soul matter” or “life force” they are trying to harness for their clients.

(more…)

Whether you are a branch manager advising your reps about market niches, or you are an RIA looking to specialize, you’ll be a part of a growing segment of the industry investigating unique demographic groups. In this article, we’ll present an overview of a few distinctive niches and demographic groups and discuss where they are, what are their key characteristics, and some strategies for understanding and working successfully with them. (more…)

For years, merger mania has swept through the country (and world, for that matter) under the perception that “bigger is better.” Financial institutions had long been prime participants; community bank was bought by regional bank which was gobbled up by national bank only to be merged into global bank. (more…)

No matter how tough the going gets, there are always contenders in the financial services industry that are up-and-comers. The four firms profiled are growing rapidly, and are on target to becoming bigger fish in a bigger pond in 2008. (more…)

The term “outsourcing” means different things to different people. To young MBA students, it represents one of primary buzzwords (along with “networking”, “synergies”, and “economies of scale”) that will help guide them on their roads to business (and hopefully financial) successes. To average non-technologically savvy consumers, it represents those lengthy phone calls with friendly tech support professionals at call centers half a world away. To manufacturing employees, it represents the ongoing fears that they may one day be downsized in a cost-cutting measure by their global corporations. To management execs, it represents hours of insightful discussions in the boardrooms as their companies weigh the advantages and disadvantages of using strategic partners in certain areas of their businesses. (more…)

It is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish your firm and/or your branch from the competition, which makes recruiting and retaining the big producer equally as difficult. It’s crucial to have a platform of excellent products and services for them to maintain an affluent client-centric practice. And because they specialize in working with the high net worth individual, it is essential to provide an environment that fosters the opportunity to capture and service bigger and better business….. (more…)

At 9 p.m., the end of a hectic day, Robert, a successful 45-year-old million-dollar producer at a major wirehouse in downtown Manhattan, closed the door to his office, locked it, and took the elevator to the 36th floor of his office building. Despondent over recent losses his best clients suffered in a certain hedge fund over the past year, Robert had been short-tempered and adversarial with colleagues as well as with his branch manager, and threatened to leave the industry on more than one occasion. This business was crushing him. He could see no future. Not only had he let his clients and his family down, but just as important… he knew he had let himself down. When the elevator door closed behind him, he took the stairs to the roof where he breathed in the cool night air. With an empty glare in his eyes, he slowly made his way across the roof with a purposeful pace. Robert walked to the roof’s ledge, looked out across the dark city skyline, closed his eyes, and jumped.The next day it was business as usual on Wall Street. (more…)

You’ve heard the old saying, “You can’t leap a 20-foot chasm in two 10-foot jumps.”  However, that’s what some industry professionals might be tempted to do in their zeal to start their own brokerage firm.  Most of the time, making a life-changing career decision is an all-or-nothing feat –you can’t do it half way. That is not to say that you should just close your eyes, jump, and hope to make it safely to the other side. (more…)

In the not-too-distant past, the bank brokerage industry wasn’t much of a threat to Wall Street’s aggressive pursuit of high net worth individuals. Most bank-based brokerage operations had pretty limited offerings (mutual funds, annuities, and insurance) and usually the banks didn’t venture far from their own proprietary products.“The banks would try to get deposit dollars into investments, but it was piecemeal,” says Jeff Strange, a senior analyst with Cerulli Associates in Boston. Their frustration was that they didn’t have anything “holistic” to offer – “a way to deliver investment advice,” he says. But the banks are now becoming serious competitors in one of Wall Street’s long-established and more sophisticated lines of business: “Managed Account Solutions,” the umbrella term for separately managed accounts (SMAs) and mutual fund wrap programs. (more…)

Investors are not the only group going after the industry’s deep pockets. With numerous class actions pending against broker dealers by unhappy reps, it has become clear that claims between reps and their firms can be even more costly than the claims made by unhappy investors.
(more…)