Alicia is 9 years old. She likes Barbie dolls, kittens and Brittany Spears’ music. She has a great smile, sparkling eyes and an insatiable curiosity. But Alicia has something that most 9-year-olds don’t: a daily battle with pain. Alicia has cerebral palsy.
Alicia knows the inside of a hospital like the back of her hand. She knows the frightening experience of having a body that is out of her control. She knows what it’s like to have people stare and whisper and shake their heads in dismay. And she knows that her life will always be different.
What Alicia doesn’t know is that she isn’t even on the radar screen of a lot of people who could help.
The problem isn’t that these people wouldn’t help if they knew. The problem is that Alicia doesn’t meet the measure of worthwhile clients. In the financial industry, Alicia has no net worth, and therefore she doesn’t exist. (more…)

Hiring the right people is one of the most challenging hurdles leaders face in any organization. In financial services, it is far more complex than in almost any other field of business. We face issues in regulatory law; complexity in products and services; communications and relationship requirements with clients, vendors, and distribution channels; and more paperwork than the military! Training people in a financial services position takes time and money. A wrong hiring choice is not easily corrected, especially taking into account OSHA requirements. (more…)

It’s no great surprise that the financial services industry is going through another major change. Some old timers remember the technology revolution when chalkboard quotations were replaced with hi-tech Quotrons and Bunker Ramos. Others remember the explosive growth of mutual funds, money markets, options, and limited partnerships. Those older, gray-in-the-temple folks asked themselves, “Am I with the right brokerage firm?”
Today, a more appropriate question is, “Am I in the right channel?” (more…)

FINCEN is completing the final phase of a new system where members will access, review, and report via the Internet rather than receive an email attachment for review. You will be required to register the first time you log in to the new system. Member firms that receive the lists by fax will continue to receive them via fax. The secure email will be sent every two weeks and lists are available for a four-week period. See http://www.fincen.gov/314a. BDC will no longer be sending FINCEN requests for review. (more…)

The ability to communicate effectively involves knowing how your words and actions will affect other people. Knowing what to say and do is as important as knowing what not to say and do, and it’s a complicated process. It has been said that you will make it in this world partly based upon your ability to communicate with others.
You can further enhance the abilities of your brokers by introducing concepts and techniques that they can immediately use to become more effective with other people, not just in business, but in personal relationships as well. (more…)

The Dominican Republic is the site where Europeans first established a permanent settlement in the Americas. Since the time Christopher Columbus set foot in Santo Domingo, the land that was to become the Dominican Republic has had a troubled history. The country was ruled or occupied by Spain, France, Haiti, and the United States. Oddly enough, a twist of American history put this article in “foreign finance.” In 1869, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant negotiated a treaty to annex the Dominican Republic, as Texas and California had been annexed before. However, the Senate refused to ratify the treaty. Party politics were never easy. (more…)

Michael Calvelli, a 20-year veteran of the financial-services industry, recently took the helm of Advanced Financial Solutions (AFS), a San Diego-based broker dealer focusing exclusively on investment programs for the community banking industry. Mr. Calvelli spent a good part of his professional career with the Pershing Division of Donaldson, Lufkin, Jenrette Securities Corporation (DLJ), where he oversaw its San Francisco-based West Coast operations and managed more than 50 broker-dealer relationships, among them some of the fastest growing in the country. He holds a series 78, 63 and 24 and is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business.

How did you get into the financial industry? (more…)

It seems like every time you pick up a newspaper or business magazine these days, someone is writing about how the much-anticipated rise in interest rates is going to burst the current real estate “bubble” and wreak havoc on the sector. And while it’s true that prices are high in many geographic areas, the concerns are mainly focused on the rising prices of residential real estate. (more…)