Wealth Management 101

Identify the Problem… You know something is wrong when a streaming music company – rather than Wall Street – is improving the way private companies go public. In today’s Wall Street Journal, I explain Spotify’s “direct listing” and theorize what the...

Cybersecurity: The New Arms Race of Wealth Management

In my column for The Wall Street Journal, I write primarily for readers who are investment professionals. (Please, no wise cracks the two are mutually exclusive.) The first six paragraphs from my column about cybersecurity, which was published on February 17, 2017,...

The Greatest Stock Story Ever Told

No Value Added in Wealth Advisory? Yale’s Class of 1954 Might Not Agree Barely a year out of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School, Joe McNay was working in Boston as an analyst for Old Colony Trust Co. He spotted Syntex Corp., a drug maker seeking...

Should Fiduciary Advisers Swear Off Mandatory Arbitration?

Is requiring investors to take disputes to arbitration consistent with the advisers’ duty to act in clients’ best interest? The vibe is celebratory. There are coffee, doughnuts and croissants on the side table, smiles all around the conference room. On...

Brokerage ‘Culture’ and the Challenges of Compliance

Compliance staffers have a tough job and risk personal liability when firms misbehave The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority recently announced that “culture, conflicts of interest and ethics” remain a priority of its brokerage examinations this year. But do you...

An Inconvenient Observation About Fiduciaries

An obligation to put clients’ interests first doesn’t guarantee that financial advisers will do the right thing Years ago, my team left a large brokerage firm for the greener pastures of a fee-only registered investment adviser. While soliciting a client to follow, I...