Despite rumors of oversupply and demand dampened by rising construction costs consistently filling newspaper columns, the market in Dubai continues to defy expectations. The reasons are simple: a growing economy, a rising population, and a progressive and focused central government.The Dubai economy has been the envy of the Middle East for the past decade. GDP has been growing steadily at 10% per year, with 2004 and 2005 being bonanza years for the Emirate with growth of 14% and 15% respectively, due to sky-rocketing oil prices in the world markets. In addition to the petroleum sector, trade activity has been a major contributor to the Dubai economy, accounting for 20% of the economy. (more…)

Whether you decide to launch your own brokerage firm or simply leave the wirehouse environment, you have a decision to make: Open a small office as an independent contractor with an indy B/D, or become an RIA? The first question to ask yourself is, do I really want to be a business owner? The reason being is now, in either case, you will have your practice to manage and a business to run.Many wirehouse reps don’t have the “burning desire” needed to become a real entrepreneur and business owner some industry observers say, because in the end they truly appreciate the comfort and prestige of a large firm. But many younger reps or those in the earlier stages of their careers are more willing to take the risk than many veterans who have a lot at stake, i.e., leaving hundreds of thousand of dollars in deferred comp on the table (retirement and bonus plans), and clients in proprietary products. (more…)

A penny saved is a penny earned. That Benjamin Franklin would have been a heck of a financial advisor. He truly understood the value of cash. For years, many registered reps (not you, of course) seemed to overlook this asset class and treated it as a mere step-child compared to the more sexy stock and bonds (and even commodities and now alternatives). Enter the Federal Reserve and its 17 consecutive rate hikes that ended in August 2006. All of a sudden, certain cash equivalents are yielding in the five percent range (and that doesn’t look half bad). (more…)

This is SIFMA’s third annual conference for small and mid-sized brokerage firms, organized by its Small Firms Committee around the theme of how to “survive and thrive.” The daylong event covers the expected topics from a small-firm perspective: marketing, hiring, regulation, and compliance. But this year’s event also included some interesting sessions on the heightened regulatory environment in terms of selling investment products to senior citizens and on the rapidly growing market for structured products for the high net worth crowd. (more…)

In a society where the average person has a greater life expectancy than ever before, the baby boomer generation currently finds itself faced with an unprecedented crisis: that of caring for their aging parents. It is a reality that neither parent nor child ever wishes to face, but one that they must nevertheless come to accept. (more…)

As broker-dealers continue to vie for top-grossing talent among registered representatives, the SEC and NASD have both signaled a focus on certain ramifications for firms that hire on new reps. Consistent with ever-growing consumer concerns over the security and privacy of personal data given to retailers, the SEC appears to be targeting securities firms’ use of client information, specifically when new reps bring over customers from prior firms. (more…)

A new generation of real estate investment trusts (REITs) has come into its own. The market for non-traded REITs became attractive in the late 1990s and early 2000s as an alternative to the bursting technology bubble. Non-traded REITs had garnered minimal investment interest between 1990 and 2000, when technology stocks ruled and the holdover stigma of the failed 1980s limited partnerships made them the victims of investor skepticism. On average, they attracted less than $300 million per year around that time—an amount that, in any one year, could only have afforded a few institutional quality commercial buildings. (more…)

The NASD has been getting tougher on a practice that has been around for a while which would seem to be rather innocuous, but can have major consequences: Recruiting people to work on the investment advisory side of the business while agreeing to “park” or “hang” their Series 7 licenses from their previous jobs at an affiliated broker-dealer so they won’t have to repeat the six-hour-long test if they ever want to go back to a job that requires a Series 7. (more…)

Last year I wrote an article detailing the, “Top 5 Reasons Advisors Leave a Broker/Dealer.” The more I researched the topic, the clearer the differences between advisors who move on and those who stay became. For advisors to consider changing broker/dealers, the pain threshold must be sufficiently high to motivate them to make that drastic move. Nonetheless, though many advisors have mixed emotions about their broker/dealers, usually ranging from disappointment to apathy, most stay on. Why is that? (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…)