| TodaysAdvisor James P. Manouse II: Founder, Editor-in-Chief
William S. Herz: Chief Technologist & Consumer Electronics Editor Dennis Gallant: Contributing Editor Willaim Hortz: Contributing Editor: Strategic Account Management Jennifer Connelly: Contributing Editor: Public Relations Mitch Vigeveno: Contributing Editor: Staffing & Search Rob Shore: Contributing Editor Paul Kingsman: Contributing Editor Natalie Revell: Contributing Editor Gary Buffone, Ph.D. AFPP: Contributing Editor, Behavioral Finance Peter Montoya: Contributing Editor: Marketing/Branding Don Connelly: Contributing Editor: Sales Hal Barr: Contributing Editor Peter Haines: Contributing Editor: Marketing John Hintze: Contributing Editor Philip Palaveev: Contributing Editor Carter L. Hall: Contributing Writer, Television & Beverage Critic Richard "Buck" Ryder: Contributing Writer, Music Critic Cleverly Stone: Hospitality and Food Critic _______________________________________________________________ BIO's James P. Manouse II e Jim is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of TodaysAdvisor.com. Jim was born outside of Boston and named for his paternal grandfather, a Greek immigrant who arrived in America around 1916 from Constantinople (now Istanbul, but not to Greeks). Manouse grew up in Binghamton, N.Y., part of what is known as New York's "Triple Cities", along the southern tier of New York State, two hours northwest of New York City.
Manouse graduated from Binghamton University, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Social Science and while waiting to start Law school, took a job with First Investors Corporation, a Wall Street based investment firm quickly rising to the rank of District Manager and Regional Recruiting Executive by the tender age of 25.
Moving to Boston in 1990, Manouse attended Harvard University while working for Sun Life of Canada’s U.S. affiliate at the Sun Life Annuity Service Center. At Harvard Manouse studied Religion, Philosophy, and History (as well as other subjects where, upon graduation, it would be impossible to make a living). After 5 years in Boston Jim accepted a job back in upstate New York where he served as the personal investment advisor to the local Teamsters Union. In 1995 Manouse earned the CFS (Certified Mutual Fund Specialist) designation.
In the mid-90’s Manouse moved to Houston, TX where he joined American General Securities (AGSI). Manouse served as Marketing Coordinator in the back office for two years before taking on the role of Marketing Consultant and Western Regional Sales Manager. During this period Manouse coordinated the launch of AGSI’s web site, their quarterly newsletter, wrote economic reports, created asset allocation models, created recommended mutual fund portfolios for various risk classes, created both the mutual fund and variable annuity product guides, and founded the Western Regional Advisory Council to address the concerns and hear the ideas of AGSI’s representatives in the western part of the U.S. Manouse also managed the relationships between AGSI and various thrid-party investment product manufacturers, a role he would continue to play with various B/D's for the next decade.
IN 2002, coming to the attention of National Financial Partners, a fast growing, aggressive, and incredibly successful financial services firm and independent financial practice consolidator out of New York City, Manouse joined the Executive Team of their broker/dealer; NFP Securities, in Austin, TX as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Manouse remained at NFP through an exciting period where NFP was able to successfully launch their IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. During his tenure at NFP, Manouse oversaw the first two national conferences in NFP Securities’ history, spearheaded a first-of-its-kind wealth management program partnership between NFP and JP Morgan and was the project manager for the creation of NFP's proprietary Variable Annuity Products and Corporate Retirement Plans on-line search engines. Manouse also oversaw relations and negotiations with various investment product companies, from mutual funds and variable annuities, to retirement plan sponsors/platforms.
In 2004 Manouse joined NEXT Financial Group as part of their senior management team as Director of Marketing. NEXT, another fast-growing and successful broker/dealer owned by its affiliated registered representatives and where Manouse played an integral role in helping NEXT win 3 of its 6 consecutive Broker/Dealer of the Year Awards, an unprecedented feat, never before achieved by another firm. Manouse oversaw product sales, distribution, and due diligence on traditional investment products, advisory fee-based services, the national sales conferences, creation and successful launch of the revolutionary, first-of-its-kind fee-based, unified managed account and suite of fee-based products platform; The Global Management Account, all sponsor and vendor relationships and negotiations, and, additionally, oversaw advertising and PR for the firm as well as serving as the point-man for potential firm acquisitions. i In 2009, the revolutionary fee-based UMA and suite of fee-based products platform, the Global Management Account, created by Mr. Manouse, and the forerunner of NEXT's RIA, which was named one of the top performing RIA's in the nation by Rydex/SGI AdvisorBenchmarking. From January 2008 to late 2009, this fee-based platform brought-in over $350 million of new assets from advisors. i Most recently Jim was the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Walton International Group in Scottsdale, Arizona, a leading land banking and pre-development land asset management firm in the United States with offices in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Canada. i
Manouse has the distinction of being the only person to have lead the sales and marketing teams at the two fastest growing independent broker/dealers in America (in terms of percentage revenue growth from 2001-2005, as reported by Investment Advisor magazine). i Manouse has contributed to Investment Advisor, Financial Advisor, Boomer Market Advisor and 'I Carry the Bag' magazines and has been quoted in the Investment News, Investment Advisor, Securities Industry News, Ticker and other financial services publications. i Manouse was featured twice as a main keynote speaker at a conference for the securities licensed agent/representatives of American General Life & Accident Company, as well as serving as MC/Host for five consecutive national broker/dealer conferences: 2002 & 2003 while with NFP and 2004, 2005 & 2006 while with NEXT Financial. i Manouse has passed the NASD Series 6, 7, 24, 26, 63, and 66 exams. Additonally he has held Life and Health Insurance Licenses in the State of New York and has also passed the first level of the CLU (Chartered Life Underwirter) program. i Manouse served on the finance committee of the United Way in the Southern Tier of New York State in the early 1990's. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jim-manouse/5/388/30 THE CREW John Hintze Is a Contributing Editor for TodaysAdvisor magazine and todaysadvisor.com. He has covered the financial indusry for 15 years. Additionally, he currently writes for publications including Bank Investment Consultant, Financial News, Securities Industry News and Traders Magazine. William S. "Bill" Herz Is the Chief Technologist and Consumer Electronics Editor-at-Large for TodaysAdvisor and todaysadvisor.com. Bill has worked in Silicon Valley for over 20 years in video and consumer electronics with varying responsibilities including engineering, product development, technology innovation, and strategy and business development. Bill has 26 patents issued with over 50 pending. He has served in various executive capacities at video and consumer electronics companies including CTO, Vice President of Technology and Strategy, Vice President of Engineering, Sr. Director of Consumer Product Development and Director of Advanced Television Development.
Bill started his career as an electrical engineer and has designed boards, chips, and systems. Bill is the inventor of the Personal Spectrum Recorder, or Multichannel Personal Radio Recorder. Among his many achievements, he has lead, or been part of product development teams, which developed many of the world's firsts including: an HDTV film scanner, a professional digital video tape recorder, a solid state (tapeless) professional video editing console, and a consumer digital video recorder, MP-3 player, DVD player and photo viewer combo.
As an executive, Bill has been involved in intellectual property acquisitions, company acquisitions, and setting strategic directions for CE and video initiatives.
Bill has been a member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers for over 20 years. He is a member of IEEE. He has been certified by Imaging Science Foundation as a television calibrator. He has been granted degrees in Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications Management. With a genuine passion for technology and innovation, he has been spending most of his disposable income (for as long as he's had disposable income) on CE and new technology products. Philip Palaveev Is a Contributing Editor for TodaysAdvisor. Mr. Palaveev is President of Fusion Financial, a major producer group affiliated with Natonal Financial Partners, where he can put his years of consulting and research to the test in the real world, working with actual financial services practices and practitioners. Previously he was an often-quoted industry consultant that had recenly been made a Partner with Seatle-based Moss Adams LLP. He was a Business Consulting Senior Manager who leads the market research area for the Moss Adams Securities and Insurance Industry practice division and consulted with broker-dealers and registered financial advisors on issues of strategy, business planning and compensation. He can be reached at ppalaveev@fusionfinancialnetwork.com Dennis Gallant Is a Contributing Editor for TodaysAdvisor and is President and Founder of Gallant Distribution Consulting (GDC), and an industry expert with nearly 20 years experience providing strategic planning and analysis across the financial services industry.
Mr. Gallant's experience is diverse in analyzing trends in the financial services marketplace, providing strategic positioning, reviewing new product and service developments, and supporting business planning services to a wide range of broker/dealers, asset managers, banks, insurance firms, and service vendors. Mr. Gallant speaks regularly at industry conferences and has been quoted in numerous industry publications including The Wall Street Journal, Investment News, Business Week, Registered Representative, On Wall Street, Financial Planning Magazine, and the New York Times. Mr. Gallant is a member of Retirement Income Industry Association's (RIIA) Research Committee (www.riia-usa.org) and a member of Dow Jones Wealth Management Advisory Council. (www.djwmac.com).
Prior to establishing GDC, Mr. Gallant was a Director at Cerulli Associates, leading the firms consulting and new business development efforts, executing consulting assignments, identifying and developing new business opportunities, and managing key client relationships for Cerulli. Mr. Gallant also established Cerulli's Intermediary Research Group, which was responsible for generating research and key Cerulli Reports covering trends and market intelligence on various financial service intermediaries, advisors, broker/dealers, and asset managers. He can be reached at gallant@gdcresearch.com Peter Montoya Is a Contributing Writer on Marketing for TodaysAdvisor and www.todaysadvisor.com. He is president of Peter Montoya Inc., The Financial Services Marketing Firm. He has trained thousands of financial advisors in branding and marketing, and he has authored two influential guidebooks, The Brand Called You and The Personal Marketing Phenomenon. To inquire about Peter’s training and Peter Montoya Inc.’s services, call 888-730-5300 or visit www.petermontoya.com. Don Connelly Don Connelly, the nation's most successful advisor to the retail brokerage industry has long been a powerful beacon of wisdom to investors and financial services professionals. His career on Wall Street spans nearly 40 years and includes positions as stock broker, financial planner, branch manager, wholesaler, national sales manager and for nearly 19 years, was a company spokesperson and Senior V. P. and Senior Marketing Officer for Putnam. Traveling tirelessly to educate audiences around the world, Don has lectured tens of thousands of investors and financial services professionals in large cities, small towns, boardrooms, and universities. Audiences at England's Cambridge University, Harvard, Wharton School of Business, Chapman College and Pepperdine have all benefited from his presentations. He has shared his wisdom with Investment professionals abroad in New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Canada, England and Ireland. And, in the past few years has given several presentations to the prestigious Million Dollar Roundtable as both a main platform and workshop speaker. He can be reached through his website at www.donconnelly.com Peter Haines Is a contributing writer and marketing columnist for TodaysAdvisor and is the Director of Marketing for Lenox Advisors (www.lenoxadvisors.com) Prior to Lenox, he worked for advertising agencies Young & Rubicam, Ogilvy & Mather (where he won the David Ogilvy Award with Team Jaguar) and McCann-Erickson. He also has entrepreneurial spirit, having run his own marketing communications firm. Peter’s experience includes leading marketing efforts for such blue-chip financial services clients as American Express, Salomon Smith Barney, First Union Securities, CIBC World Markets, Barclays Capital and Freddie Mac. He began his marketing career as a copywriter, later transitioning to account management and new business development. He is an Ambassador for the Advertising Education Foundation, offering branding, marketing and strategic communications presentations to college students. He can be reached at phaines@lenoxadvisors.com Richard "Buck" Ryder Is a freelance journalist and music reviewer living in Nashville. His father, an avid music fan and musician, moved the family to Nashville from West Texas when Buck was 12. Buck is named after country music legend Buck Owens. Interestingly, his older brother Charles is nicknamed "Buddy" after Buddy Holly, one of the iconic figures of early rock and roll, who was from West Texas, as was Buck Owens, before eventually landing in Bakersfield, CA. He has boycotted the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame over their snub of such acts as RUSH and the Steve Miller Band, vowing not to return until they are both inducted. He still wants to write for Rolling Stone, but until then, we've got him. Carter Lyman Hall Is a freelance writer from New England. Born and raised in Boston, Carter now lives out of a suitcase. His latest journey had him spending time at an Ashram high in the Himalayas of Tibet (or is it Nepal?). When not travelling he resides in Hyannis, Massachusetts, with his wife Camille, also a writer and playwrite, and their two Golden Retrievers. He is currently editing his novel and, apparently, drinking some beer as he reviews local micro-breweries for us from Cape Cod and the Islands (tough life!). Jennifer Connelly Jennifer Connelly is President of JCPR in Parsippany, New Jersey, a ful-service public relations and marketing communications firm specializing in the financial services industry. Jennifer has more than a decade of professonal experience working with C-level executives to build distinctive brands including American Beacon Advisors, HighTower Advisors, Aston Asset Management, Direxion Funds, Clearbrook Financial, NorthStar Financial, MarketCounsel and industry thought leader Tom Lydon. Jennifer is a member of the Tiburon Consulting Fellows program at Tiburon Strategic Advisors and is recognized as a marketing specialist on Pershing’s Advisor in Transition program. i Jennifer routinely contributes to publications including Financial Advisor, Investment Adviusor and Investment News and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, roundtables and events on subjects including public relations, marketing and distribution. She can be reached at jenn@jcpublicrelations.com or via her website www.jcpublicrelations.com i Mitch Vigeveno Mitch Vigeveno is the founder of Turning Point, Inc., a privately held recruiting and executive search firm that was founded in 1994 to provide quality, independent recruiting, executive search and consulting services to the financial services industry. Mitch has experience on both the insurance and securities sides of the business. He has been a life insurance agent and built a general agency for a mutual insurance company. Mitch has been a regional vice president for a company providing support services and products to broker-dealers. Prior to founding Turning Point, Inc. he was vice president of branch development for a major national independent broker-dealer. i Mitch is frequently interviewed and quoted in a variety of industry periodicals such as Registered Representative, On Wall Street and Investment Advisor Magazine, and Investment News. Mitch can be reached at 727-725-8876 or at mitch@tpisearch.com. Company website: www.tpisearch.com. Hal Barr Hal started his journey as a native Rhode Islander and graduated from Boston College with degrees in Economics and Political Science. He began his long and successful career in the financial services industry with Merrill Lynch. Hal later worked for such firms as Flagship Funds, Eaton Vance and AIM Funds, consistently driving sales to new levels everywhere he went. While at AIM Funds, he became Executive Director of Sales Strategy and Planning and also served as their national spokesperson. He played an integral part in leading AIM to record sales. He also developed the “80/20 Best Practices Program,” which propelled the firm and its many advisors and advocates to record levels of success. i Hal is a nationally recognized speaker on a variety of topics including behavioral finance, best business practices for financial advisors, and delivering the ultimate client experience. Cleverley Stone Is the Hospitality and Food Critic and Contributing Writer for TodaysAdvisor magazine and todaysadvisor.com. She hosts “The Cleverley Show” on CNN Radio News, KIKK 650 AM,on Saturdays at Noon in Houston, www.Cleverley.com. Since 1997 she has published an online newsletter, www.CleverleysNewsletter.com, that features Houston’s restaurant and dining news. Email her at Cleverley@CleverleysNewsletter.com. Daniel Davies Is an analyst and stockbroker living In London. He started his career working in the Bank of England and has been a stockbroker for ten years. He is a member of the Crooked Timber group blog and sporadcially maintains d-squareddigest.blogspot.com and a small number of other projects. He is a business school graduate, although not strictly an MBA, because there was an MSc in Finance qualification which was substantially cheaper | | EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION Helping to evolve an industry, one day at a time. That's all, and that it. It's not about the aging population of the majority of financial professionals, be they they Baby-Boomers or members still of the 'Greatest Generation' - it's about new ideas, for young and old. It's about Today's Advisor and a new way of doing things, while remembering the old ways that still mattrer, like 'The Client is king" and 'It's a relationship business'. It's about that, about tradition and respect, but its also about the other things. Like it or not, the world is changing, just like it always has. There is no, as there never has been, any returning to the 'Good Old Days'. The world is changing, faster than ever. It's scary, and hard to keep up, even for the most technologically advanced among us. Bill Gates once said that what he feared was not the companies he competed against, but the kid down the street in his garage - a kid like he was once was who doesn't know what's impossible and who doesn't know what can't be done. The world is changing fast, and this busines is going to have to change fast to keep up with it. It's the individual and the firm that has the courage to grab hold of new ideas and technologies, be they in marketing, practice management, trading platforms or other areas, that will be well positioned to lead and succeed in the future. This is no time for Ostriches with their heads burried in the sand, too scared of outside influences to forge ahead. Like Whitman once wrote: "We cannot tarry here. We must march, my darlings. We must bear the brunt of danger. We, the youthful, sinewy races, upon all the rest does us depend. Pioneers, Oh pioneers." And, its not just about business, but lifestyle as well. We seek to cover the a broader spectrum, and in-so-doing, help to change an old industry, with new ideas, one day at time. That's all. All the Best, Jim James P. Manouse II Founder, Editor-in-Chief TodaysAdvisor | |