Products September 12, 2007

Wachovia Securities Offers Practice Valuations to Adviser Firms

Wachovia Securities Financial Network (WSFN) has announced it will provide comprehensive practice valuations (a 60+ page analysis of the firms) to the top 20% of its affiliated independent practices.
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In addition, WSFN is providing the owners of each of these businesses with the opportunity to implement both a short-term continuity/disaster plan and a separate, long-term succession plan to protect the value of their practices, a company announcement said.

WSFN has contracted with FP Transitions to provide and deliver the package of succession planning services. Each participating adviser will receive a custom, hard-bound, comprehensive report detailing their practice value, as well as an extensive succession planning workshop designed to implement a continuity and long-term succession plan.

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WSFN is covering 100% of the cost of the comprehensive business valuations and comprehensive succession planning workshops for the participating advisers, as well as discounts to its entire adviser network.

The comprehensive practice valuations will provide WSFN advisers with a benchmarking analysis of their cash flow quality, marketplace demand, and transition risk, utilizing FP Transitions’ valuation models and database of comparable financial practice sales. Each adviser will receive their practice valuation at a WSFN Succession Management Program seminar in January 2008.

WSFN is an independent broker-dealer with more than 550 financial advisers and 305 practices nationwide.

Data & Research September 12, 2007

Los Alamos is Tops in Residents' Personal Savings and Investing Behavior

Los Alamos, New Mexico, earned the top spot for the second year in a row on A.G. Edwards’ third annual Nest Egg Index, which ranks America's 500 top-performing communities and the 50 states based on their residents' personal savings and investing behavior.
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Los Alamos scored a rating of 134.83, indexed to a national average of 100. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA placed second, with a rating of 127.61 and Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT, placed third with a rating of 125.15, A.G. Edwards said in a press release.

According to the survey, communities that ranked highly in the Index benefit from local strong housing markets and show a high propensity toward saving and investing, particularly in retirement vehicles such as 401(k) or pension plans, the release said. Though the top-performing markets have higher costs of living than the national average, residents still manage to keep their debt levels in check, as 19 out of the top 20 communities showed lower debt levels than the national average.

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Among the states, Connecticut ranked first with a rating of 114.25. The other states in the top five of the 2007 A.G. Edwards Nest Egg Index are New Jersey (113.21), Minnesota (112.59), Massachusetts (112.19), and Maryland (111.59).

Rounding out the top ten cities were:

  • Torrington, CT (121.15)
  • San Francisco-Oakland-Freemont, CA (118.94)
  • Barnstable Town, MA (118.36)
  • Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI (116.98)
  • Holland-Grand Haven, MI (116.87)
  • Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA (116.65)
  • Edwards, CO (116.46)

Ohio had the most communities in the top 500 list at 37, followed by Indiana (32), Pennsylvania (30), and Michigan (29). All 24 Wisconsin communities were ranked in the top 500, while no communities in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma were represented in the top 500.

The complete A.G. Edwards Nest Egg Index is at http://www.nesteggindex.com.

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