Surprise – I’m Not Larry Roth!

Larry’s Having a Great Time in Nantucket.  I’m Stuck in Sweltering Phoenix.  We Have a Great Issue This Week Nonetheless. 

Hello WSR Community Members –

Surprise!  I’m not Larry Roth.  

So where is Larry?  Well, I’m glad you asked.  He’s vacationing in Nantucket, doing whatever it is that the Nantucket summer crowd does.  Oh, and when he asked if I could fill in for him this week, he told me to “be nice.”

I tried explaining to Larry that it’s easy to “be nice” when you’re spending July in a gorgeous house in Nantucket surrounded by family, friends and loved ones.

But just try to “be nice” when you’re in your mid-50s, out of shape, divorced and living in a one bedroom apartment in downtown Phoenix, Arizona year round.

The temperature here was 109 degrees.  The only two sounds that I can hear are my wall unit air conditioner trying like The Little Engine That Could, and the musical selections of my next door neighbor, who loves listening to Evanescence – nothing BUT Evanescence – at full blast, day and night.

In fact, this week in July makes me yearn for my own little Bastille Day (July 14 for those who don’t know).  But in my case, it would be a Bastille Day where I storm the Fairmont in nearby Scottsdale and occupy the best suite.  

Just thinking about how great the air conditioning and room service food would be there is almost enough to help me forget about my dinner alone in my apartment with a large cheese pizza from Domino’s.  But I digress.

For this week’s issue:

• Words in Edgewise – Real Estate Roundtable. If you’re not interested in my musings about Bastille Day, perhaps you’ll be more interested in National Mortgage Brokers Day, which is happening this Sunday, July 18.  To mark this momentous occasion, we’ve asked Phil Shoemaker of Homepoint to convene a Real Estate Roundtable of top independent mortgage brokers across the country to address the top residential real estate-related questions that WSR’s financial advisor readers have shared with us.

• Wallet Share – How Mid-Sized Firms Can Stand Out in the FA Recruiting and Retention Wars.  For financial advisors and IBD home office staff who are wondering how small and mid-sized firms can compete effectively as industry consolidation intensifies, check out this week’s Wallet Share, featuring Tarah Williams, Chief Administrative Officer of Prospera Financial Services.

• Nightmare on Compliance Street.  Sander Ressler of Essential Edge is one of my favorites among our outside contributing experts.  He’s a lot like me, but happy and rational.  This week, Sander addresses whether financial advisors’ unpaid bills that get moved to collections need to be disclosed to the home office – And when as well as how to manage client disclosures on portfolio rebalancing in brokerage versus advisory accounts.  As always, complex issues where the penalties could be high that keep advisors up at night.

I hope you all enjoy this issue, wherever you are this week, share content that you like with friends and contacts, let us know your feedback.

And most importantly, if you’re in a desirable summer vacation spot right now, spare a thought for me as I wade through my own tears and sweat (much more of the latter) in the stifling Phoenix heat.

It isn’t Nantucket, that’s for sure.

Cheers!

James Miller, Contributing Editor & Research Analyst