Oct 18, 2014
IPO allocations are the pits if you are a financial adviser. You indicate a 50,000-share interest in the new offering. Then, on the day trading begins, you may get 100 shares and an ‘attaboy’ to spread around your clients. Painful. Because of experiences like...
Sep 18, 2014 |
As my readers know, I spent much of my career in private wealth management with several of the iconic Wall Street brokerage firms. Now, in addition to my novels, I write a regular column for financial advisers who subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. I am...
Aug 21, 2014
“My business is all referrals.” I hear this claim from financial advisers a lot, and I’m skeptical. My team managed over a billion dollars. We received our share of endorsements. But waiting for them was like watching grass grow. Think about it....
Jul 24, 2014
It’s time for the client’s annual portfolio review–and time to take market share, the advisers think. They know the client, a wealthy family, spreads its assets around the Street. And their firm’s results have been exceptional this year. So...
Jul 11, 2014
The phone rings. Your hard-charging client says, “I sit on the board of trustees of a charity that…” What follows sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher. “Whaa-whaa-whaa.” Here we go. He or she is a) moving money out, thereby cutting...
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.