Seven Personality Traits of Top Salespeople (Harvard Business Review)

The Six Keys to Surviving on the Road (Harvard Business Review)

Scalability is the Key to ETF Distribution (kasina)

Asset Managers Must Ramp Up Social Media Initiatives to Reach Key Relationships (kasina)

Firms Without Hybrid Wholesalers Leave Money on the Table (kasina by Steven Miyao)

3 Reasons Why Wholesalers Stray From The Basics – Don Connelly (Wholesaler Masterminds)

Schmeeks, Formally Known As Wholesalers (Wholesaler Masterminds)

A Multi-Boutique Brings in Three Distribution Chiefs (The MutualFundWire.com) 

LPL Collects a Listing Fee from Fund Firms (The MutualFundWire.com - Armie Margaret Lee) - LPL Financial, the nation's largest independent broker-dealer, earlier this year started charging fund firms a listing fee of $5,000 for mutual fund additions to its platform.

Advisors Prefer Phone Calls (The MutualFundWire.com) - In-person meetings may be great for introductions, but for ongoing contact advisors prefer phone calls. That's one of the findings from Horsesmouth and kasina's joint FA Vision study of 2,922 advisors.

Neuberger Berman Bids Adieu to a Sales Exec (The MutualFundWire.com)

What Advisors Say About Wholesalers, Etc. (Retirement Income Journal)

How To Market to Advisors (Retirement Income Journal) - Here's a smarter way for retirement income product manufacturers to segment and sell into the advisor market, according to survey analysts Howard Schneider of GDC Research and Dennis Gallant of Practical Perspectives.

Sammons Adds Retirement Product Distribution Business (National Underwriter)

Hybrid Wholesalers as Productive as Field Sales, kasina Finds (MMExecutive)

Big loss for Legg Mason, as national broker-dealer sales head Joe Lohrer set to scoot (Investment News) - Twenty-five-year veteran reportedly going to Blackstone; latest exit of many

CIMA Gets Accredited, Aims to Serve as Industry Standard (Registered Rep)

It's Not Just Talk: Improving Outcomes Through Communication (kasina)

Meeder Flexes its Distribution Muscle (The MutualFundWire.com - Armie Margaret Lee) - Meeder Financial, the Dublin, Ohio-based firm that offers the Flex-funds, has expanded its sales force with two wholesaler hires. The company hired Kevin Stutz for the South Central region and Erik Pederson for the Western territory.

RidgeWorth Ramps Up its Retail Sales Team (The MutualFundWire.com) - RidgeWorth Investments has added two additional wholesalers to the six it has recently hired for its newly created Retail Channel sales team, which is led by Bob Kuberski.

Personnel Changes: Prudential, Aviva, Lincoln Financial (National Underwriter) - Lincoln Financial Distributors, Philadelphia, a unit of Lincoln National Corp., Radnor, Pa. (NYSE:LNC), has hired Kelly Bush to be regional sales director for the institutional retirement solutions distribution team.

Personnel Changes: MetLife, Lincoln Financial (National Underwriter) - Lincoln Financial Distributors, a unit of Lincoln National Corp., Radnor, Pa. (NYSE:LNC), has hired Jim Lyday to be head of institutional retirement solutions distribution. Lyday previously was senior vice president at Prudential Financial Inc., Newark, N.J. (NYSE:PRU). Lincoln Financial Distributors also has hired Bill Nash to be national sales manager for the MoneyGuard sales team

Lincoln Realigns Insurance and Retirement Team (National Underwriter)

DWS Investments Promotes Woods (On Wall Street) - DWS Investments, the retail mutual funds arm of Deutsche Bank, on Wednesday named Michael J. Woods as regional head and CEO, adding those titles and responsibilities to his current role as U.S. head of distributions.

Personnel Changes: Nationwide, MassMutual, Towers Watson, Others (National Underwriter) - Nationwide Financial Services Inc., Columbus, Ohio, has named Doug Allen, Bob Eviston, Tim Stephens, Christine Travis, and Jennifer M. Turkos to be new wholesalers in the life insurance, annuities and retirement plans businesses.

Symetra Names Eastern Division Sales Manager and Eight Additional Life and Retirement External Wholesalers (Yahoo! Finance) - Symetra Life Insurance Company has announced a new sales leader for its eastern division and eight additional regional vice presidents to represent the company’s portfolio of annuity and life insurance products.

Bank of America

• Bank of America to Hire 500 at Merrill Edge (WSJ.com) 
• BofA Adding 500 Financial Advisors (FA Mag) - Bank of America will nearly double the number of its financial advisors by adding 500 by the end of this year to serve middle-class customers, those with $50,000 to $250,000 in assets. 
• BofA's cross-selling plan costs Merrill a veteran team (Investment News) - Bank of America wants its Merrill Lynch reps to market banking products and to assist clients with banking services. That strategy may not be sitting so well with some advisers. This week, a $250M Merrill team jumped to Ameriprise. The reason? Partly, to focus on financial planning, not banking.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo rolls out private-banking blitz in NYC (Investment News) - Bank aims to attract clients by requiring lower minimums on investable assets than rivals

Chase

JPM's Retail Unit Proved Too Big to Manage (Bank Investment Consultant)

Citi Private Bank

• Citi Private Bank Hires Morgan Stanley Exec Adams (On Wall Street) 
• Citi Private Bank Hires U.S. Trust's McDermott as Managing Director (On Wall Street) - Patricia McDermott will serve as managing director and head of Citi Private Bank in Connecticut and Westchester.

Banks, Wirehouses Brace For More Breakaway Brokers, Advisors (On Wall Street) - Giant financial institutions and wirehouses that spent fortunes attracting and retaining top-producing brokers and wealth managers over the past few years may be about to get socked with a big wave of departures this year and, especially, in 2012.

Banks' Life Insurance Sales Plunge in First Quarter (On Wall Street)

15 Month High for Bank Sold Annuities (Annuity News Journal) 

Productivity Rises at Smaller Bank Investment Programs (Bank Investment Consultant)

Financial Services for Small Credit Unions and Community Banks (Bank Investment Consultant) - Credit unions and small banks can offer the same high level of investment products and services as other institutions, with the right type of program in place.

U.S. Trust Announces Senior Hires in Northeast and Midwest (On Wall Street)

In Reputation Ranking, Some Banks Break from the Pack (Bank Investment Consultant)

US Bancorp Launching Unit Catering to Ultra-Rich (Wall Street & Tech) - US Bancorp plans to launch a new unit for the ultrawealthy in the fourth quarter from offices in Denver and its headquarters city of Minneapolis.

Despite Worst Year for Annuities, Banks Post Only Small Loss (On Wall Street) - Last year, total annuity sales through banks declined 25% from the prior year, which itself was down 18% from the year before that, according to Kehrer-LIMRA. Yet newly release data from the Michael White-ABIA Bank Annuity Fee Income Report shows that income from annuities was down just 1.8%.

SunTrust Appoints Rogers New CEO; Wells to Retire at End of 2011 (On Wall Street)

Our Shrinking Industry:

• Acquiring a B/D? Use This Checklist. (Registered Rep) - Are you considering doing a deal, purchasing a broker/dealer? There are tons of regulatory issues to consider. 
• Another IBD Bites the Dust After Selling DBSI (Registered Rep) 
• Ranks of B-Ds likely to shrink by 540 firms in three years (Investment News) - A research firm predicts that the number of B-Ds in operation could drop from 4,540 to 4,000 by 2014. And bear in mind, that's a net figure. Meaning? A lot more than 540 brokerages will get bought or go belly up in the next few years. 
• Independent status of 60,000 reps in jeopardy (Investment News) - Employment status debate resurfaces in California, a labor-law bellwether. More good news? B-Ds may be a very tempting target for cash-strapped states

LPL

• LPL Trains Financial Advisory Firm Staffers (FA Mag) - A unique LPL educational program that trains administrative staff of financial advisory firms has graduated its first class of students. 
• LPL aggressively pursues Securities America's top producers (Investment News) 
• LPL Financial Provides Advisor Access To Social Media (FA Mag) - LPL Financial becomes the latest independent broker-dealer to allow its advisors to use social media, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Other Articles:

• Fidelity Exec Advises Advisors On Growing Their Firms (FA Mag) 
• Independent Life Not for Everyone, Some Advisors Find (Registered Rep) 
• FINRA Fines Wells Fargo Advisors $1M For Document Delays (On Wall Street) - Wells Fargo failed to promptly send prospectuses to certain mutual fund customers and update records for representatives employed by the firm, FINRA said.
• Securities America asks reps to pledge allegiance (Investment News) - Securities America Inc. last week took the unusual step of asking its 1,800 reps and advisers to sign a “letter of support” to indicate their intention to remain at the firm — a development that some observers took to mean that a sale of the troubled broker-dealer could be imminent.

Compliance:

• Broker-Dealers Must Prepare For New Regulatory Rules: Panel (On Wall Street) - New rules targeting broker-dealers could mean new exams for certain management professionals and new standards for SEC inquiries.
• B-D compliance burden growing, Pershing says (Investment News)
• 640 B-Ds to pay fees for auditor inspections (Investment News) - The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board voted today to charge fees on 640 B-Ds to help pay for examinations of their auditors. Non-custodians may get off the hook, though.

America's Top Independent Brokerages (Registered Rep)

The Who's Who List of Independent Broker-Dealers for 2011 (On Wall Street) - Here's a handy, alphabetical listing of all the independent broker-dealers that participated in Financial Planning's 2011 survey along with their corporate contact information and sales rank for the year.

Top Independent Broker-Dealers By Revenue in 2011 (On Wall Street)

The most profitable indie B-Ds (Investment News)

Raymond James Adds Assets, Loses Advisors (Registered Rep)

Another indie B-D says it could go under (Investment News)

What Will Life After Ameriprise Mean for Securities America Advisors? (On Wall Street) - The announcement from Ameriprise Financial that it planned to divest Securities America set off an inevitable scramble among recruiters and the company's advisors. So what's next?

Fidelity Unveils Marketing Toolkit For Independent Advisors (On Wall Street)

Wirehouses Need to Improve Investor Satisfaction: Survey (On Wall Street) - A new annual study from J.D. Power and Associates shows that RBC Wealth Management ranks first compared to other firms in investor satisfaction.

Wirehouse Firms Get Creative With Recruiting (Registered Rep)

Why nobody wins in the new recruiting wars (Investment News) - When seemingly every broker-dealer wants to increase its reps — at a time when the total population of financial advisers is in the process of shrinking — is it possible for anyone to actually win the so-called recruiting wars? 

Wells Fargo Recruits From Outside the Industry (Registered Rep) - Wells Fargo Advisors’ is looking for recruits in out of the way places. In April, Kent Christian, president of Wells Fargo Advisors’ financial services group, told a Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association conference that the aging FA population is creating a shortage that will seriously impact the industry and investors, and which he believes “cannot” be solved by recruiting from rival firms.

Wirehouse Firms Get Creative With Recruiting (Registered Rep) - As recruiting from other wirehouses dries up, the big Wall Street firms have been turning to non-traditional sources.·

Recruiting Update: Baird and HighTower Add Advisors (Advisor One)

75% of Broker-Dealers, RIAs Plan to Hire in 2011 (Bank Investment Consultant) - They plan to boost their staff by 30% over the next 12 months, Fidelity finds.

Baird Hires Morgan Stanley Complex Director, Promotes Five (On Wall Street) - Morgan Stanley's Steven W. Stroker will lead Baird's wealth management offices in the central region.

Back to the future: Wirehouse firms resurrect training (Investment News)

Wall Street Brokerages Set For More Advisor Defections? (Registered Rep) - Another wave of financial advisor defections could be just around the corner, says an Aite Group report. Switching for big signing bonuses spiked during the recent financial crisis when Wall Street’s biggest brokerages merged or were acquired. But it died down a bit after Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley offered their financial advisors retention packages.

Merrill, Wells, Ed Jones Jack Up Trainee Hiring (Registered Rep)

Branch managers, time to stop living in the past: Sarch (Investment News)