Raymond James just poached a whale
Raymond James landed its biggest recruit ever (Think Advisor)
Raymond James has poached its biggest recruit ever, taking The Americas Group, and their $2.4 billion in assets under management from Morgan Stanley. The team is made up of advisors Don d'Adesky, W. Kristopher Lemke, Matthew Cicero, Jose Cabrera Sr., Kevin Gourrier and Ryan Weber, who split their offices between Boca Raton and Coral Gables, both in South Florida. "We are delighted to have attracted the Americas Group, which is widely recognized as one of the most successful advisor teams in the country, to join our firm in South Florida," added Tash Elwyn, president of the firm's employee broker-dealer Raymond James & Associates.
Bill Gross' new fund is trailing his old fund (Wall Street Journal)
Bill Gross' Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund is down 1.2% since its inception in September. The lackluster start has Gross' new fund lagging the performance of his old fund. Pimco's Total Return Bond Fund is up 2.06% over that time. With just $1.5 billion AUM, the Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund is far smaller than Pimco's Total Return Bond Fund, which has $110 billion AUM.
Larry Fink says American's are focusing on savings (Bloomberg)
BlackRock chairman and CEO Larry Fink believes the zero interest rate policy of the Federal Reserve is causing Americans to save more of their income. According to Fink, "the fear of retirement is getting greater." He continued, many Americans are "realizing that they have a totally inadequate strategy for retirement and living in retirement with dignity." As for when the Fed will raise interest rates, Fink believes it will happen in September.
Americans don't have a retirement withdrawal plan (Financial Advisor)
A study from Pentegra Retirement Services concluded 56% of those surveyed don't have a plan for withdrawing their retirement money. The biggest issue is that most Americans have no idea how the payout process works. Pentegra senior vice president of client services, Rich Rausser, says, "The retirement industry has spent the last 20 years advising people how to accumulate retirement savings and reach a magic number." Rausser continued, "Many may not ever be able to reach that goal, and we must shift some of the focus to helping educate people on what to do with their savings when they retire. People need to learn about their options and solutions to maximize what they saved."
Broker takes clients money, buys bullion, and keeps it in his basement (Financial Planning)
In 2009, Mark Preston French, an advisor at then-independent broker-dealer Investors Security (now Securities America) allegedly convinced an elderly client to give him money to buy gold and silver bullion. French purchased $1.3 million worth of bullion for the client, and stored it in his basement. However, Financial Planning reports, "Yet over time, the indictment says, French siphoned off tens of thousands of dollars from this one client for his personal use." The FBI removed the bullion from his home despite French claiming his client "made a better than 10% profit," and he is now facing 16 criminal counts including wire fraud and laundering. The client's bullion is in "safe custody," according to US prosecutor Dale Williams.