RJ and Makay

InvestmentNews posted their top 10 most unforgettable commercials from the brokerage and advice industry yesterday. Their top 10 list includes such stalwart favs like the Merrill Lynch bull in a china shop, when EF Hutton talks people listen and Edward Jones the art collection.

The Ameritrade baby? Didn't make the top 10 but received an honorable mention of sorts. The commercial that still stands in my mind to this day as the most memorable and powerful was the one from Smith Barney with trusting and sophisticated John Houseman firmly stating that, "They make money the old fashioned way, they earn it." After comments about this commercial were posted on the site InvestmentNews the online Managing Editor John Goff commented that he agreed about the ad but could not find a video clip of it thus it was not included on the list.

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I posted a response yesterday to an article entitled Clearing the air about wirehouse news coverage written in Investment News by Evan Cooper. Although I've enjoyed many of the other opinion pieces I've read by Evan Cooper I think he goes too far in his criticism of wirehouses while other channels get virtually a free pass in his recent opinion columns mentioned in my response.

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Financial Advisor recruiting has seen a boom over the last two years. Will the boom continue or has Financial Advisor (FA) recruiting stabilized?

In the 15 month period from August 2008 to Nov 2009 there were 11,875 wirehouse reps and 1687 regional firm reps who switched firms. Wirehouse reps are Financial Advisors from either Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, UBS, Merrill Lynch/BofA and Wachovia/Wells Fargo.