Sometimes, A Veteran Advisor With A Ton Of Business Will Just Leave For A Rival Firm

Elena HolodnyNov 26, 2014, 03:28 IST

FA Insights is a daily newsletter from Business Insider that delivers the top news and commentary for financial advisers. A Guy Who's Been At Merrill Lynch For 33 Years Just Left (The Wall Street Journal) Douglas Twohill, who has been at Merrill Lynch for 33 years, just left the firm and joined rival UBS, reports Michael Wursthorn. And with him went Stevel Scalici, who has been at Merrill since 2009. It is unclear why either of the men left Merrill. According to a UBS spokesperson, Twohill managed $223 million in assets and had $2 million in production. "Like its major rivals, Merrill Lynch has been trying to stem the tide of financial-advisor attrition. The large brokerages are in fierce competition for talent, willing to pay signing bonuses of up to three times an adviser's annual production to lure them from one another," reports Wursthorn. One Morgan Stanley Advisor Has Developed Two Successful Investment Strategies (Financial Advisor Magazine) Financial advisor Eve Ellis of the Matterhorn Group at Morgan Stanley has developed two of her own investing strategies for clients. First, "Ellis and Matterhorn co-founder Nikolay Djibankov launched Parity Portfolio, a gender lens investment strategy that invests exclusively in US-based companies that have at least three women on their boards." And second, she developed the Sustainability Portfolio, in which the group invests across seven sustainability themes: climate change, demand for water, waste-generation issues, global demand for food, improving lives, aging and healthy lifestyles, reports Jerilyn Klein Bier. We Might Be In A REIT ETF Bubble (Wealth Management) REIT ETFs are this year's winner in the alternative investment space, but they may be getting too popular. Right now REIT ETFs are trading 10% above their 200-day moving averages. "Strict technicians would tell you that this is one sign that REITs may be a bit overbought," said Steve Sachs, head of capital markets at ProShares. Overall, investors are starting to act more cautiously, and many believe that investor's hunger for yield has inflated asset prices. But not everyone agrees. Paul Brigandi, the head of trading at Direxion Shares, said: "prices trending above their 200-day average doesn't necessarily mean the fund's overbought. It fact, on an intermediate basis, it's an indicator that the trend may continue." One Advisor Was Just Ordered To Pay $300,000 To UBS (Financial Planning) The ex-UBS adviser Michael Hadden has to pay the firm $300,000. Back in 2011, Hadden "failed to honor contractual obligations under the terms of two promissory notes that were due after he quit his job on Nov. 3, 2011," reports Andrew Welsch. Afterwards, "Hadden sought counterclaims for damages of $1.3 million, alleging breach of understanding, fraudulent inducement and creation of an inhospitable work environment," among other things. The Finra panel ultimately sided with UBS, and Hadden could not be reached for a comment. Real Estate Markets Are Attractive Right Now (Advisor Perspectives) Real estate has been doing well this year. The US real estate market outperformed US equities overall: the S&P 500 is up 12.2% for the year, but the Dow Jones US Select Real Estate Securities Index is up more than twice that at 27.9% for the year. Global non-US real estate market outperformed global non-US equities, as well. And although it's up less than US Real Estate, "behind Global ex-US Real Estate is an important rebalancing methodology that brings constituent weights back toward a measure of relative value - something that is especially important after periods of strong performance," writes Christopher Gannatti "The bottom line: While there is no way to be certain of future performance, we think that it could be beneficial to consider diversifying exposures to US Real Estate - which has performed well - with Global ex-US Real Estate," writes Gannatti.

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Sometimes, A Veteran Advisor With A Ton Of Business Will Just Leave For A Rival Firm