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...
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,...
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...
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...
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 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...
The New York Times describes my novels as “money porn,” “a red-hot franchise,” and “glittery thrillers about fiscal malfeasance.” Through fiction I explore the dark side of money and the motivations of those who have it, want more, and will steamroll anybody who gets in their way.
The New York Times describes my novels as “money porn,” “a red-hot franchise,” and “glittery thrillers about fiscal malfeasance.” Through fiction I explore the dark side of money and the motivations of those who have it, want more, and will steamroll anybody who gets in their way.