NEW YORK, Sept. 27, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Barron's magazine and R.J. Shook, author of "The Winner's Circle" books rating America's top financial advisors, yesterday kicked off a three-day "Top Advisors Summit" at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. Attending are 90 of the Top 100 financial advisors in the U.S., as ranked by R.J. Shook and published in Barron's April 23, 2007 issue. These elite financial advisors will lead the event's "Winner Workshops" on the business of delivering wealth management for high-net-worth individuals and institutions.
Also in attendance are nearly 500 financial advisors who were selected by their firms to participate in the event. Firms sending attendees include Ameriprise, Bear Stearns, Commonwealth Financial Network, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, LPL Financial Services, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Keegan, Morgan Stanley, Oppenheimer & Co, RBC Dain Rauscher, Royal Alliance Associates, Inc., RW Baird, Smith Barney, UBS, Wachovia Securities and Wells Fargo.
The Barron's/Winner's Circle Top Financial Advisors Summit is designed as an exclusive, invitation-only event for the opinion leaders and influentials of the financial industry. Attendees enjoy a unique opportunity to interact, discuss and debate the best practices in wealth management with their peers.
"This Summit has become a benchmark event for the financial-advisor community," said Ed Finn, editor and president of Barron's. "It's unique in that competing firms come together for frank discussions and information-sharing - all with the common goal of improving the quality and performance of the financial-services industry."
R.J. Shook noted that, "Scores of Winner's Circle advisors have told me that once they've reached the top of their firms, there are fewer people - oftentimes no one - to share ideas with. For this reason, we're bringing the 'best of the best' together to share ideas and help each other - and the industry as a whole - move to a higher level of performance."
Sessions at the Top Financial Advisors Summit will address industry issues such as compensating teams, client segmentation, building a retail practice, alternative investments, marketing to foundations and endowments, and incorporating ETFs into portfolios.
The Summit is sponsored by the following institutions: AIG Private Client Group, AIM Investments, Allianz Global Investors, American Century Investments, Barclays iShares, BlackRock, Calamos, Dow Jones Wealth Manager, Dreyfus, DWS Scudder, Eaton Vance Managed Investments, Franklin Templeton Investments, Frenkel & Co, Inc., The Hartford Mutual Funds, JanusINTECH, Lazard Asset Management, Legg Mason, MFS Investment Management, Natixis Global Associates, Nuveen Investments, NYSE Euronext, Putnam Investments, Schroders, Vanguard, Van Kampen Investments and WisdomTree.
The Barron's Top 100 cover story and list of Top Financial Advisors is available free at: http://online.barrons.com/public/article/SB117710933898677415-search.html.
About Barron's
Barron's (www.barrons.com) is America's premier financial magazine, renowned for its market-moving stories. Published by Dow Jones & Company since 1921, it reaches an influential audience of senior corporate decision makers, institutional investors, individual investors and financial professionals. With new content available every week in print and every business day online, Barron's provides readers with a comprehensive review of the market's recent activity, coupled with in-depth, sophisticated reports on what's likely to happen in the market in the days and weeks to come. As a result, Barron's is the financial information source these powerful people rely on for market information, ideas and insights they can use to increase their professional success and enhance their personal, financial well-being.
The Barron's logo is available at http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=2638
About R.J. Shook
Through exhaustive, in-depth studies in the financial services industry, R.J. Shook has developed a unique expertise in identifying success patterns and characteristics of the industry's top producers. Since September 2002, he has published a yearly ranking of the top advisors in America. A frequent contributor to business periodicals and the author of numerous books on the subject, Mr. Shook is a recognized authority on best practices in the financial services industry. He frequently gives speeches, conducts workshops and leads panel discussions on topics and issues of concern to financial services professionals and their organizations to which they belong.