Blog entries

The personality types who are killing office meeting productivity

RJ & Makay — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:19:55 +0100

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Office meetings can be a challenge for any business organization, and corporate trainers have identified personality types and gathered anecdotal data that sheds light on meeting dynamics. Naysayers are those that challenge just about anything anyone brings to the table. For them, &ldquo...

Workers’ compensation line shows mixed 2011 results

RJ & Makay — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:52:22 +0100

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While workers’ compensation premium increased 7.4% in 2011, the combined ratio for the line remains at an unsustainable level, according to a new report by the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI). The combined ratio came in at 115 in 2011, the same level as ...

Commodity prices fall

RJ & Makay — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:41:52 +0100

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Bullish bets on commodities by hedge funds and other managers fell by 20%, or $18 billion, last week as commodity prices dropped to four-month lows, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data last Friday. As speculators continued liquidation...

A trustworthy face matters

RJ & Makay — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:22:18 +0100

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A person’s looks win out over their reputation when others entrust them with their money, according to a study by Warwick Business School in London. Researchers digitally altered trustees' features with Facegen software to make them appear more or less trustwort...

Half of working age Americans not contributing to a retirement plan

RJ & Makay — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:31:20 +0100

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49% of Americans are not contributing to any retirement plan, according to a new Life Insurance and Market Research Association (LIMRA) survey. And those age 18 to 34 are more likely (56%) than other age groups to not be saving for retirement. The survey also showed that only 25%...

Ina Drew gets the $2 billion ax

RJ & Makay — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:26:44 +0100

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JPMorgan Chase chief investment officer Ina Drew, a 30-year veteran of the company, has decided to retire from the firm, JPMorgan announced today. Matt Zames, the current co-head of Global Fixed Income and head of Capital Markets within the Mortgage Bank department, will succeed Ms. Drew a...

U.S. Internet scam losses totaled $485 million in 2011

RJ & Makay — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:16:31 +0100

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The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has released its 2011 Internet Crime Report. The center processed 314,246 complaints which totaled about $485 million in losses last year. The most common scams involved criminals posing as FBI officials. Scammers also...

Overall investor satisfaction stays flat: J.D. Power

RJ & Makay — Fri, 11 May 2012 20:36:53 +0100

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Investors’ satisfaction level with their full service brokerages has remained flat since last year and also since the midst of the financial crisis in 2008, according to the latest J.D. Power and Associates investor satisfaction study. Edward Jones scored highest t...

Hedge funds show monthly net flow gain

RJ & Makay — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:09:51 +0100

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The GlobeOp Capital Movement Index for May now stands at 146.10 points, a gain of 1.24% from April. The index shows monthly net hedge fund asset flows indicated by subscriptions and redemptions administered by GlobeOp. To produce the reading, the net of monthly subscriptions a...

FINRA underestimates SRO costs: Boston Consulting Group

RJ & Makay — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:43:47 +0100

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Boston Consulting Group (BCG) issued a report that was released by advisory groups yesterday that refutes the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) cost estimates for the role it wants as the self-regulatory organization (SRO) for advisors. The BCG review, sponsored by several advisory ass...

Insurer mobile investment high despite low utilization

RJ & Makay — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:10:58 +0100

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As finance companies invest in mobile technology more than any other industry, insurance firms account for more than 40% of that spending, according to “Mobile Insights for Finance Brands,” a new study sponsored by mobile advertising platform company Millennial Media and Internet mark...

CEO confidence highest since 2009: YPO

RJ & Makay — Wed, 09 May 2012 21:09:09 +0100

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The latest Young President’s Organization (YPO) quarterly survey shows that U.S. CEOs’ level of confidence rose to 65.1, the highest level since YPO's Global Pulse index was initially compiled in 2009, and above the group’s global confidence index level of 63.8. Only the Latin A...

Smartphone owners are “the new majority”

RJ & Makay — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:29:41 +0100

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Smartphone owners now represent the majority of the mobile phone market in the U.S., according to a new Nielson report. The nation’s smartphone users totaled 50.4% of the mobile phone subscriber market in March of this year, up from just under 50% in February and 37% in Mar...

U.S. could profit by $15.1 billion from AIG bailout

RJ & Makay — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:21:03 +0100

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The U.S. government may eventually make $15.1 billion in profit as a result of the 2008 bailout of American International Group (AIG), according to a new estimate by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The news came amid a Treasury Department announcement Monday that it has agreed to sell $5.8 billi...

Broker rebates from exchanges are scrutinized

RJ & Makay — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:18:16 +0100

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The rules of Wall Street basically require stockbrokers to seek out the best stock exchange prices for clients who pay them for share transactions. In the past few years, however, many brokers have been receiving rebate payments from stock exchanges in return for sending business to the exchanges.&nb...

Hundreds of thousands are too broke for bankruptcy

RJ & Makay — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:20:25 +0100

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The cost to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection is too steep for the estimated 200,000 to one million Americans expected to file this year, according to recent research submitted to the National Bureau of Economic Research. A group of professors from Columbia University, the University of...

Wealthy investors prefer LinkedIn

RJ & Makay — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:06:52 +0100

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Of more than 5 million high-net-worth (HNW) individuals that currently use social media for a variety of financial planning and investment research activities, almost three-fourths of them prefer LinkedIn, according to a Cogent Research survey of American and Canadian investors with more than $100...

Financial jobs picture slightly improves

RJ & Makay — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:01:30 +0100

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As the overall unemployment rate in April dipped slightly to 8.1% amid less-than-expected job gains, the financial activities supersector unemployment rate dropped to 5.5%, from 5.7 in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The supersector gained 1,000 jobs mont...

Jobs added in April fall short of expectations

RJ & Makay — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:37:55 +0100

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The U.S. economy added 115,000 non-farm payroll jobs in April and the unemployment rate ticked down to 8.1% from 8.2% the previous month, the Labor Department reported today. The number fell short of economists’ expectations that had forecast a gain of 163,000 jobs. The slight improveme...

30-year rates hit record low

RJ & Makay — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:11:18 +0100

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Lenders are offering 30-year mortgage loans at an average of 3.84%, a record low, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly survey. The rate beats last week’s rate of 3.88% and is slightly better than the previous record low of 3.87% in February. The current rates have great...