Sander Ressler's columns for Wealth Solutions Report, April 2021 to June 2025.
Taking A Deep Dive Into Pooled Employer Plans
Third Week of June, 2025
Executives From SageView, Perigon And American TCS Share Views On This Relatively Recent Retirement Plan Option
… To promote retirement savings access among small employers, PEPs were designed to help them overcome three common hurdles: access, administration and fiduciary risk, according to Victor Hicks II, Wealth Advisor and Managing Director of advisor-led, independent wealth management firm Perigon Wealth Management.
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Rising Compliance Risks Of NOT Discussing Life Settlements
June 25, 2023
In an age of regulatory harmonization, financial advisors face new pressures to weigh pros and cons of life settlements for clients.
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Compliance Rescues Firms And FAs From Crypto Dumpster Fire
January 10, 2023
For Experienced Wealth Management Compliance Professionals, Crypto Always Had Less Value Than Hill Of Magic Beans
… Many of the most vocal naysayers about the future of crypto were from the compliance supervision profession. And why? Because most of us didn’t get it. We’d hear from various crypto enthusiasts and self-proclaimed experts about the intrinsic and inevitably growing value of crypto …
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ComplyConnect Spotlights Industry’s Top Regulatory Priorities
First Week of December 2022
First Major Gathering of Wealth Management Compliance Professionals Since Pandemic, Plus WSR’s Latest Compliance & Regulatory Trends Survey.
… The wealth management industry seems increasingly oversaturated with conferences, especially as new and more well-established events jockey for position in the post-pandemic new normal.
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Downstream WhatsApp Regulatory Woes for Wealth Managers
Third Week of August 2022
Smarsh’s Robert Cruz: US Wealth Management Firms Should Be Paying More Attention to Instant Messaging Regulatory Fines for Global Financial Institutions.
Instant messaging apps continue to rise in use across the world, and that’s causing agita for compliance professionals at major global financial institutions, and the regulators who oversee them.
Many instant messaging apps, including the leading platform in this segment, WhatsApp, aren’t being supervised appropriately, and the content isn’t being captured and archived as regulators expect and demand.
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Supreme Court’s EPA Ruling Could Kill Fiduciary Rule 2.0 Efforts
Fourth Week of July 2022
SCOTUS Conservative Majority’s Ruling on EPA Has Significant Implications for Wealth Management Regulatory Landscape.
The Supreme Court’s recent ruling underscores that its conservative majority is willing to adopt a more activist stance on a wide range of issues. And perhaps even more importantly, the ruling sends a clear message that SCOTUS believes in carefully limiting the powers of regulators.
What does this mean for wealth management regulations?
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Breakaway Advisors Launching RIAs Anxious About Compliance
Fifth Week of June 2022
Wirehouse Advisors Exploring Independence Increasingly Worried About Potential Compliance Needs, Seeking Cost-Flexible Solutions.
It’s officially the middle of the year … this … tends to be the point of the year when employee financial advisors, especially those working at wirehouses, tend to get much more serious about either pulling the trigger on a move …
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Regtech Rapidly Changes, Reflected in New CEO of Smarsh
Third Week of June 2022
New Leader of Digital Communications Compliance Solutions Brings Tech, Financial Services and Risk Management Savvy as Regulators Create More Complexities
Major changes appear to be happening at regtech firm Smarsh. A widely recognized provider of digital communications content compliance solutions to independent wealth management firms in both the RIA and IBD segments, Smarsh officially has a new CEO.
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The Kids Are NOT All Right, Why HNW Wealth Managers Caved On Crypto
Second Week of June 2022
FAs Learned the Hard Way About Saying No to Next Gen Clients, And Too Many Industry Experts Didn’t Help
Fear and greed, when misdirected and misled, are two emotions that can drive the worst behaviors in humankind, And the wealth management space isn’t exempt from this fact.
Take my favorite topic these days on the dangers of fear and greed for the wealth management space: Crypto.
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Crypto Enters Crypt Of Horrors, How Can Firms and FAs Protect Themselves?
Fourth Week of May 2022
Last Year, I Sounded the Alarm: And All I Got Was ‘Crypto Bro’ Hate Mail
Crypto assets were very high on my list of assets apt to do just that, as noted in my not very subtly headlined column from November 2021, “The Crypto Craze Could Murder Financial Advisors Careers.”
At the time, I received more hate mail from the ‘crypto bro’ crowd than I could shake the proverbial stick at, as noted in my December 2021 column, “Every Financial Advisor’s Worst Crypto Nightmare.”
Where are we now?
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The Future of Wealth Management Workflow Automation
Fifth Week of February 2022
Workflow Automation Attracts Advisors and Clients, Cuts Costs and Increases Efficiencies; Machine Learning and Data Capabilities Will Drive Further Innovation.
We asked a diverse segment of our readers who are C-suite decision-makers at large independent broker-dealers as well as RIA aggregators whether they agreed or disagreed with a series of statements about workflow automation, using a scale from 1 to 10 … The results are interesting, to say the least …
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Case Study, How Small IBDs Can Leverage Compliance To Accelerate Growth Turnaround Strategies
Third Week of January 2022
Small and mid-sized independent broker-dealer / RIA firms that have recently recovered from regulatory-related challenges can mobilize compliance to support new growth.
When large independent broker-dealer / RIA firms encounter a multi-year period of regulatory and legal difficulties, they will likely need to make some hard strategic decisions …
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Every Financial Advisor’s Worst Crypto Nightmare
First Week of December 2021
If Your E&O Insurance Doesn’t Cover Crypto Investing Blow-Ups, Kiss Your Business Good-Bye in the Next Black Swan Event.
The challenge with blind spots is that you truly have no idea they exist. “Go to hell, you old dinosaur [sic]. Check out REAL crypto experts on TikTok.” This is just one of a large number of surprisingly hostile messages I received from my last column for WSR …
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The Crypto Craze Could Murder Financial Advisors’ Careers
First Week of November 2021
Efforts to Wrap Professional Asset Management Structures Around Crypto Currencies Disguise Enormous Risks to Financial Advisors.
If a client told you to put all of his or her long-term retirement assets into magic beans, at a moment when everybody has a “look what I grabbed from the giant’s castle” story, Would you? Crypto assets are the financial advisor profession’s equivalent of magic beans.
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Help! My First Ever Customer Complaint!
Fourth Week of August 2021
Dear Sander,
I am a registered representative with a broker-dealer, and I got my first customer complaint today. She is complaining that her investments lost value and that I am responsible ... I told her all about the products before she agreed to purchase them. I can’t predict the markets or the future. Is there anything I could have done that might have prevented this complaint?
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Don’t Ask Forgiveness Versus Permission
First Week of June 2021
Dear Sander,
I’m a registered representative with a bad credit rating stemming from a past medical issue. I want to buy a new house, but I can’t get a mortgage with my current credit. My best friend, who is also a client of the firm, wants to co-sign the mortgage loan for me. I know that I can’t borrow money from a client, but technically co-signing a loan isn’t borrowing money. But having a client co-sign a loan isn’t mentioned in our written supervisory procedures. Should I bring this to the attention of my supervisor or the compliance department for approval … ?
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Silence Of the Spouses, Beware!
Third Week of May 2021
Dear Sander,
I’m a financial advisor, and I have been serving a married, male client for over 10 years. The client has a joint account with his wife … I’ve never spoken to the wife until today, when she called me and told me to liquidate everything in the account, and wire the funds to her bank account … I’ve tried to reach her husband … but he hasn’t responded … I really feel uncomfortable taking her instructions without talking to her husband first.
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Product Conflicts and Employee Harassment?
Third Week of April 2021
Dear Sander,
… The CEO of our firm bought a private placement to the committee for review. The private placement looks shaky … The catch is the General Partner of the private placement is the brother of the CEO. Can I be fired by the CEO for not approving the product?
Read the full column on Wealth Solutions Report · PDF
Originally published in Wealth Solutions Report, April 2021 to June 2025.