2000 Articles
- The Wall Street Journal. “PaineWebber Scrambles To Prevent Losing Traders.” Charles Gasparino. July 20, 2000. The golden handcuffs tying many of PaineWebber Group Inc.’s 8,554 brokers to the firm suddenly have been unlocked, and the brokerage powerhouse is scrambling to prevent losing some of its biggest producers. … “If brokers want to leave, there’s nothing in this deal to make them stay unless they see in the next few months that the new firm is a much better investment firm-and that has yet to be answered,” says Rick Peterson, a brokerage recruiter in Houston. “There’s an awful lot of anxiety there.”
View full article… - Securities Week. “Aggressive Recruiting by First Union Securities Yields Impressive Numbers.” July 3, 2000. With its acquisition in May of First Albany’s retail brokerage assets and more than 200 brokers plus the recruitment of hundreds more from competing firms in the last year, First Union Securities has drawn a lot of attention from around the industry. “First Union continues to expand and recruit aggressively throughout the country with no apparent letup,” noted recruiter Rick Peterson, president and founder of Houston-based Rick Peterson & Associates, whose web site is located at www.rickpetersonassociates.com. Peterson added that First Union has lured talent from all the major firms.
View full article… - InvestmentNews. “Jones Bucks a Trend; Bets on Brokers, Not the Web.” Bruce Kelly. May 29, 2000. Some observers criticize Jones for casting such a wide net in its drive for more brokers. They also complain of the limited amount of financial products the brokers sell. “It’s like buying a McDonald’s franchise,” says Rick Peterson, a recruiter in Houston. “There’s one across the street, one behind you. The competition is your own firm.” Article not available.
- InvestmentNews. “Goldman Farms Out Ultra-Rich Accounts.” Bruce Kelly. April 17, 2000. By beefing up a manager-of-managers or wrap-style product, Goldman may be signaling to its salespeople that they’ll get a smaller piece of Goldman’s syndicate, the hot IPOs underwritten by the investment bank, says Rick Peterson, president of a Houston consulting and recruiting firm that bears his name. Because of intense demand for new stocks, he explains, Goldman can instead channel the IPOs to its institutional sales reps, who get perhaps half the commission of their retail counterparts. The company pockets the difference. Clients come to Goldman for its powerhouse offerings, he argues. “Do you think Donald Trump wants a wrap account?” he asks. Article not available.
- On Wall Street. “Broker Compensation 2000: The Experts Speak.” March 2000. What’s the bid-and-asked for brokers these days? For this year’s special coverage of broker compensation, we invited some of the leading agents in the broker market to share their insights with On Wall Street readers.
View full article… - Research. “Wirehouse Hopping.” Rebecca McReynolds. March 2000. If you’ve got at least five years in the business and are grossing $250,000 or more, you’ve probably already gotten the call. … Even Merrill Lynch…is joining the feeding frenzy. The market leader is beefing up its recruitment staff and its financial incentives, trying to make up for lost time, says Rick Peterson, a Houston-based recruiter. … “They are going to go after people like there’s no tomorrow,” Peterson says. “They’ve got a strategy for 2000 that is unprecedented for Merrill on recruiting.” Article not available.
- Registered Representative. Compensation - “Repricing Brokerage.” Tracy Herman. February 2000 Why the growing dollars? For one thing, the market has been hot, of course. Rick Peterson, a Houston recruiter, points to other factors. “Handcuffs are huge, and firms have to address that to get brokers to move,” he says. “And while everybody is recruiting now, training programs have not been as rewarding as in previous years. It’s the tightest job market in history, and firms are not getting the cream of the crop anymore.”
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