I was quoted in two articles this week – one on the trends in the RIA space and the other on bullying in the mutual fund industry.
The first story, published in yesterday’s GatekeeperIQ (A Financial Times Service), had to do with the announcement by Securities America that they were unveiling a new hybrid platform geared toward smaller RIAs. The platform allows for the use of multiple custodians and can accommodate fee-based as well as commission business.
I was asked to comment on whether this was part of a greater trend in the industry and if asset managers would be able to benefit from new platforms such as this. To quote from the article: “The custodian-agnostic platform is an attractive proposition for small advisors who want to make the switch to a fee-based practice, say Andrew Klausner founder and principal advisor of AK Advisory Partners. “This is kind of a stepping stone into that, because they don’t necessarily have to change who their custodian is and therefore move client accounts,” he says. While reaching small dually registered advisors might not be a top priority for managers, they shouldn’t ignore this space. Still, he says, such advisors require support and attention. “You’ve got a larger number of smaller producers, so to have an impact is a greater effort,” Klausner says.”
The second articles was published in today’s Ignites (A Financial Times Service) and dealt with the results of a survey about bullying in the mutual fund industry. In the survey, nearly two-thirds of respondents said that bullying was prevalent in the mutual fund industry (30% actually said “very prevalent.”) This compares to 50% in the U.S. overall.
To quote from the article: “”Bullying should never be allowed or tolerated,” says Andy Klausner, founder and principal of AK Advisory Partners. “It should be specifically defined in the employee manual, including what bullying is [as] defined by the company … and what the penalties are.””
I was also asked about the different between bullying and competition. Again, to quote from the article: “Moreover, firms should not confuse fostering competition among employees, which can be healthy for a firm, with allowing bullying to occur, experts note. As Klausner says, bullying is “completely different” from competition. He defines competition as “setting goals and rewarding appropriately” and bullying as “forcing someone to behave in a manner that you want them to.””
Any thoughts?
