The backstory of how a Merrill UHNW team found love in the time of U-5 -- but not with an RIA

Can we cut the BS? Stifel pays up front money, and apparently enough to “do the right thing for the clients”. They take problems. A certain prominent team in Indianapolis and a year long securities suspension comes to mind.

There’s a reason everyone’s baffled. They evaluated 12 firms, independents, regionals, wirehouses, and that’s where they ended up? Let’s just call it what it is.

By the way, in the spirit of RIA’s, perhaps Ms. Diamond could disclose in the clear that she is paid by Stifel. The article states she placed a “terminated advisor” at Stifel. Her commentary sounds like a PR campaign for the firm. The likelihood of her giving a blunt appraisal of the situation is zero.

Are Stephen Brown and James Goetz brokers (product peddlers with no fiduciary duty) or advisors/advisers with a fiduciary duty. If dual registrants, did they actually have any real skills and experience advising clients or had they just taken and passed a test but were never provided any practical experience in advising, i.e., were they advisors/advisers in name/title only and not in real life?

I’d be interested to know how many HNW and UHNW muppets (unsuspecting, inexperienced, highly lucrative investors) this former Merrill Lynch/BOA (Too-Big-To-Fail bank) team had. Did they sell their muppets ELEMENTS (ML/BOA trademarked term)? If so, did they sell ELEMENTS with 110% transparency or did they deceive, confuse and obfuscate, i.e., was the truth buried in some 50 page document in esoteric gobbledygook poppycock terms?

uh huh and DAT – way to hide behind the anonymity of the Internet for your comments –
as a former manager I can say with reasonable certainty that no one would pay upfront for a team that was dischargd
and DAT – I would find it hard to beleive that a team coudl grow to Billion by 'peddling product’. do you know factually that they were not fiduciaries?
sounds like comments fueled by jealousy –
just how much do you manage? what is your expertise and credentials… grow a pair and submit a bio with you comments