May 2011
June 2011
1
David Rosenow, Editor
VP Business & Product Dev
Director of Compliance
Harbour Investments, Inc
575 D’Onofrio Drive
Suite 300
Madison, WI 53719
608 662-6100
888 855-6960
Insight Light
JoAnne Hufnagel, Advanced
Sales & Strategies Assistant
http://www.harbourinv.com
Investment Advisor
Magazine’s
Division 1
Broker Dealer
of the Year
2007 & 2008
In
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Don’t Worry, Be Happy
MS Walk 2011
This day and
age, we all have
so much pressure
in
our
work
and
personal
life which can
negatively affect
our success. With industry volatility
and families struggling to get by, this
creates a lot of stress and worry for
everyone involved.
After reading material from Dale
Carnegie I have come across some
great principles to help overcome
stress and worry before it can take
over.
The principles begin with
suggestions on how to overcome
worry; techniques to analyze worry;
how to break the habit before it
breaks you; how to cultivate a mental
attitude that will bring you peace
and happiness; the perfect way to
conquer worry; don’t worry about the
criticism; and finally, how to prevent
fatigue and worry and keep your
energy and spirits high.
(Continued on page 2)
We had another
successful
MS
Walk in Madison
this year with
support
from
Harbour Staff and
Representatives.
Even though we were battling
blistering
winds
and
cool
temperatures we had a nice
group participate in the walk itself.
Besides those who walked, the
support from your donations was
greatly appreciated. With your help,
Harbour has donated over $2,000 to
MS so far this year. If you missed
joining us this year, we look forward
to seeing you in years to come.
One of the highlights of the 2011
MS Walk was that David Rosenow
saved a lost child who was in pure
hysteria because he could not find
his mother. Dave’s quick actions
and heads up attention to those in
distress not only calmed the lost
child but saved his mother from
(Continued on page 3)
The key points I think we really need to
focus on are the principles on how to break
the worry habit before it breaks you. Worry
creates stress and stress can be very
detrimental to one’s health. Dale Carnegie
has 6 suggestions to help break this
habit. Keep in mind, this will not happen
overnight, but practice does make perfect.
Keep these on a post-it by your desk or in
your car or even on your nightstand, and
review them once in awhile. Trust me, it
will help. The principles are as follows:
1) Keep Busy. The busier you are,
the less time you have to think about what
makes you unhappy.
2) Don’t fuss about trifles. When
you put too much focus on unimportant
matters, you lose perspective of the
positive things in your life.
3) Use the law of averages to
outlaw your worries. Remind yourself
of what you are good at and focus on that
positive energy rather than dwelling about
your worry.
4) Cooperate with the inevitable.
When you have no control of the outcome,
you can control your
emotions by
cooperating with the result.
5) Decide just how much anxiety a
thing may be worth and refuse to give
it more. This will help you find ways to
improve on a situation or to just let it go
and move on from it. You decide.
6) Don’t worry about the past. In
other words, don’t saw sawdust. Easier
said than done, right? Let me tell you
my personal story to help justify these
principles. For those of you that don’t know
me, I have high expectations for myself;
maybe goals that are merely impossible, I
guess these could even be called dreams.
Following these principles allowed me
to return to school and earn my degree,
to play collegiate volleyball and taught
me discipline to further my career in this
industry. I am now more motivated to take
FINRA exams and learn about the financial
industry than I ever would have 2 years
2
ago. Maybe this isn’t as much a dream, but
what I thought would be impossible 2 years
ago, has now become possible.
This brings me into another idea that Mr.
Carnegie discusses, “Cultivate a Mental
Attitude that Will Bring You Peace and
Happiness.” In other words, if you think
you can’t, you won’t. If you know you can,
you will. As skilled and qualified as all of
you are, start off the day by filling your mind
with thoughts of peace, courage, health
and hope. You WILL get that trust from
Mr. and Mrs. Smith today. You CAN create
happiness for others because you know
when your client is happy, you’re happy.
And please, never try to get even with your
enemies, especially in this industry. There
are far too many investors with a fear of
investing now, due to industry and market
volatility than ever before. It is not worth
it and it doesn’t get you, as the trusted
advisor, anywhere.
If you feel you have grown in a way that
adds a lot more stress in your life as well
as those around you, I strongly suggest you
take the time to either take a Dale Carnegie
course, or purchase his book, “How to Stop
Worrying and Start Living.” It is a fabulous
book that can truly make miracles happen.
If you have any questions, I am also here to
help or even just listen. I can be reached at
608-664-3725 or by email at csaunders@
harbourinv.com.
Works Cited
Bobowski, S. (2011, February 23).
Your Dale Carnegie Coach - Steven
G Bobowski. Retrieved May 3, 2011,
from Dale Carnegie Solutions: http://
dalecarnegiesolutions.blogspot.com/
Carnegie, D. Put Stress In Perspective.
In Skills for Sucess.
Submitted by Carina Saunders
Transition Coordinator
Business Development
Harbour Training News
Insight Light
May 2011
June 2011
May 2011
June 2011
sheer panic. Way to go Dave, check that
one off your bucket list! We always knew
you had a special place in your heart for our
youth.
A special thanks to those who participated
in the 2011 Walk. Below is a list of those
participants.
Insight Light
Walkers/Donors
Rick Medland and family
David Rosenow
Jim Dushek and family
Ben Fiore and family
Jessica Koch and family
Carina Saunders
Julie Nelles and family
Donors
Howard Kapper
PDI Financial
Beverly Hicks
Tony Workman
John Esch
Steve Crispigna, Gerard Deprez,
Phil Petersen & John Birder
Kathy Walden
Klover Schafer
Becky Best
David York
Jennifer Homman
Joe Yard
Shirley Johnson
John Mueller
Burns Brothers Financial Group
Aaron Hager
Ted Norris
Michelle Harrington
Joel Guthmann
Judy Johnson
JoAnne Hufnagel
Submitted by Julie Nelles
Operations Transaction
Compliance Principal
Compliance Annual Questionnaire and
Firm Element Training Requirements
Annual questionnaires
and firm element training
requirements will officially
be
launched
through
RegEd by the end of May.
If you are eager to get
started, the 3 courses,
20F, 35AU11, and 375
(ethics, AML, and VA’s) are
attached to your firm element button as in
prior years.
The ethics course does have CEs available
in a couple of states. The questionnaires
will not be available until we officially launch
the program. We have also added a new
program to facilitate the outside business
activities questionnaire. Details will be
provided with the program launch. This
year’s completion deadline for the courses
and questionnaires is September 6, 2011.
Submitted by Rich O’Leary
VP and Chief Compliance Officer
Referral Bonuses: (May/June)
In our March/April newsletter, we had an
article that extended a
great opportunity to our
representatives on how to
earn upfront money just by
sending your referrals our
way. We feel this is a great
way for Harbour to grow as
well as for you to earn easy cash. Because
we truly believe that our representatives
are our best resource for expansion, we’re
going to extend this program for May and
June. $500 Upfront during May and June
plus you would be included in the referral
bonus program; which includes a 10% of
Harbour’s annual retention.
If you know of other high quality investment
professionals that would be a great fit for
Harbour, I would be more than happy to
Harbour Training News
MS Walk (continued)
3
spend time speaking with them about the
opportunities at Harbour Investments. If
you have any questions or have a referral
to pass my way, please call me at (608)
664-3725.
Submitted by Carina Saunders
Transition Coordinator
Business Development
Are you missing some Commissions?
Approximately 70 out of our 200 reps
currently have a commission being held.
You worked hard for
these
commissions
and you deserve to be
paid, but we need your
help. Now that IRA
season is complete,
it is a great time to
review WealthServ for
any deficiencies you might have. Before
we hold a commission, an e-mail is sent
to your hirep.net address notifying you of
the missing documentation. In addition
to receiving an e-mail you can either build
your “On Hold Commission Report” from
the Reports/Rep section of WealthServ
or view your holds on screen by going to
Compliance/Deficiencies. If you notice
a deficiency listed for an item you have
already submitted, please let us know.
We have noticed many of these holds
are due to outdated Account Forms.
Please remember an Account Form must
be updated every 36 months. To assist
you in pinpointing which clients are due for
an update, we can generate a spreadsheet
listing all of your clients and when we last
received an Account Form.
Please feel free to contact either Julie
Nelles or [email protected] or
Jessica Koch at [email protected] if
you would like to request an Account Form
listing, have questions regarding your
commissions, your holds or how to view
any of this information in WealthServ.
4
Submitted by Julie Nelles
Operations Transaction
Compliance Principal
DST Vision Professional
Everyone loves DST
Vision, the free service
many reps use to
access a consolidated
view of client assets
held direct with a
mutual fund or variable
annuity
company.
You can also access
confirmations,
statements
and
perform
fund
exchanges. DST has
recently
introduced
an additional, more
enhanced
service.
DST Professional offers portfolio reporting
and includes accounts held at Pershing.
This service does come with a price of
$35/month (with a one year commitment),
which is very reasonable for consolidated
statements.
The best part about DST Vision is the
high degree of accuracy in mutual fund
reporting as DST is the record keeper for
most mutual funds. Because the data
is received from a third party, accuracy
of variable annuity and Pershing data
will be comparable to other consolidated
statement reporting systems, such as
Wealthserv or Advisors Assistant. The
biggest downfall of DST Professional is
the lack of complete account aggregation
including DAZL (largest competitor),
Wedbush Morgan, Schwab, TD Ameritrade
and the ability to add “off-book” account
information.
Integration with Advisor Watchguard is
included in the monthly subscription as
well. Advisor Watchguard is an analysis
tool for stocks and mutual funds, similar to
Harbour Training News
Insight Light
May 2011
June 2011
5
Morningstar. The report is incredibly easy to
use, but definitely has some shortcomings.
. The lack of VA subaccount data and the
inability to at least match holdings to a
proxy can make analysis very inaccurate.
The larger limitation of this is the matching
of VA subaccounts to A share mutual
funds rather than the actual subaccount;
Harbour Compliance is still researching
whether this reporting will even be allowed
for client viewing.
All in all DST Vision Professional is a
good product for the price, but like most
products it has its shortcomings
Submitted by Jim Dushek
Operations Manager
Aaron Hager
Advanced Sales &
Strategies Principal
Transition Manager
Hiring an Assistant?
When
representatives
are hiring assistants,
they usually give me a
call to help guide them
through the process.
Recently, I reviewed
Gina Pellegrini’s “The
Personnel Package”.
I was extremely
impressed by this tool which helps navigate
the hiring process. The book also has an
audio CD that gives examples and in a
few hours, walks you step by step through
everything regarding the interview, the
hiring process and how to maintain a good
working relationship after the hire.
Some of the things that Gina touches on
and that we do at Harbour during the hiring
process that should be highlighted are:
•
Look for applicants online. When
looking for an assistant, you want to be
sure they can navigate the web. What
better way to make sure they can than to
have them apply online? Online ads are
more reasonably priced and can be run
longer because they are more economical.
• Test your candidate. We do this at
Harbour and it helps a lot. We have had
interviews with applicants who say they
work with numbers all day but cannot
pass a simple math test.
After looking
through Gina’s tests, I am going to
revamp ours to include Word and Excel.
• If it is not in writing, it does not count.
Communications with assistants about job
descriptions, expectations, salary, benefits
and reviews need to be in writing. If
everything is in writing, it can be reproduced
if anything is in question. If you “talk” to
your assistant every time they are late but
never document it, unfortunately it turns
into ‘he said she said’. Documentation
will cut down miscommunication and
keep you in charge of the situation.
•
Communication is key. When
people understand your expectations,
they perform better.
Take the time to
communicate with your assistant and give
them time to understand your work style,
the position and necessary support so
they can be effective in their role. Both
the representative and assistant need
to work together to create a good work
environment and a more organized and
successful practice since it affects both
emotionally and financially.
If you are interested in ‘The Personnel
Package’, Harbour has a limited supply
available for $15 (normally $29). Give
me a call. If you would like more hands
on help with hiring or working with your
assistant(s), we work with two firms who
could provide assistance.
Gina Pellegrini
952-829-5300
http://www.pellegriniteam.com
Mike
Roby
888-445-6423
http://www.cxcmatrixmarkting.com.
Submitted by Rhonda Meyer
VP and Chief Operating Officer
Harbour Training News
Insight Light
May 2011
June 2011
Municipal Bond Purchase Letter of Understanding As we do from time to time, we have created a new form. It is the Municipal Bond Purchase Letter of Understanding. The form has been created to fill a need to cover all of the disclosures that must be given to a client when they purchase a municipal bond. This article is a must read for anyone who currently sells municipal bonds, or is considering selling municipal bonds to their clients. For those of you who are reading this, but do not sell municipal bonds very frequently, I hope to inform you enough about selling these bonds to feel more comfortable about discussing them with your clients who might be a good fit for the products. Municipal bonds may be a good place to start for certain clients who do not want to take a lot of risk with their money, and would enjoy some sort of tax‐free income. Harbour has built a list of quality vendors who can find nearly any type of municipal bond to fill your client’s needs. Along with Pershing’s inventory, we have a list of vendors on our web site in the “Products and Resources” area under “Bond Vendors”. These vendors can help educate you on what is available, as well as find bonds that fit what you are looking for. For the occasional rep currently not using municipal bonds in client portfolios: To sell municipal bonds to clients, you first have to identify a qualified candidate. Clients who don’t make much money are usually not good prospects for municipal bonds because the tax savings doesn’t add much to the yield of the bond. That means that anyone in the 15% tax bracket is probably not a good fit for municipal bonds. So, clients who have medium or high incomes would be possible candidates for municipal bonds. The next consideration: do they want tax‐free income? Or would a tax deferred product like an annuity be more appropriate? Once you have found a client that fits the criteria, you’ll need to find the right bond for them. Almost all municipal bonds are federal tax‐free, and some are also exempt from state tax as well, as long as the client lives in the same state the bonds are issued from. In some cases, it may be acceptable to buy a bond from a state other than the client’s residence. In no case, however, would it be suitable for a client to purchase a municipal bond in a retirement account, unless the bond is taxable (which is very rare). The rating of the bond must also be taken into consideration. If the bond is rated below investment grade, or is not rated, the client must have HIGH Risk Tolerance marked on their Account Form before they can purchase the bond. A bond rating chart can be found at http://www.bondsonline.com/asp/research/bondratings.asp. You must also give consideration to how the issuer is going to make interest and principal payments on the bond. Is it a general obligation bond where the payments will come from tax revenues from the municipality? Or is it a revenue bond where the payments will come from income received from the project the bond is paying for? These are just some of the factors that go into finding the right bond for the qualified client. Please read the next section to learn more specific information about selling municipal bonds. For frequent municipal bond brokers: You are probably aware that certain information must be disclosed to clients who purchase municipal bonds. Our new form is a way for us to make sure the client gets all of this information, and protects us in the event the client claims they have not received these disclosures. As with all of our other Letters of Understanding, it discloses certain items regarding adequate information, taxes, yield, value of the product, liquidity, charges and fees and Harbour’s responsibility for the product. It also covers some other required disclosures that must be filled in on the form prior to the client signing it. Looking at the form, you will see a spot for the account number on the top of the form. After that are all of the constant disclosures we must give to the client, seven of them in all. Then we get to the portion of the form that has disclosures that may be variable in nature. First, if the bond is a new issue, the client must receive a copy of the Official Statement. The MSRB notifies me when a client is supposed to receive one, so if the client was required to receive the official statement and did not, a new form will need to be signed. Next, the form asks you to fill in the number of material notices you provided to the client. The notices can be downloaded at http://emma.msrb.org/. Every client must receive all of the material event notices for the bond issue, and the number of notices needs to be filled in on the form. We do check this number, so if it is incorrect, a new form will have to be obtained. The next few lines of the form are needed to describe the nature of the bond being purchased. Each box must be filled in with the proper information. This is followed by the Investment Objective and Risk Tolerance and the client and representative signatures. A few other points of interest regarding municipal bond sales to clients include: 1) All trades done with third parties (trades not done directly through Pershing’s Bond Central system) require three quotes. Harbour has noticed that the third parties have been giving us better prices for bonds than we can get on Bond Central, so please make some calls before taking a price you received from Pershing. 2) All of the trades in a municipal bond issue can be found at http://www.investinginbonds.com/. Please check the recent trade prices on the bond you are trading by using the cusip number to make sure the price you are getting is fair. Harbour looks at these prices and will not allow trades that are too far away from recent prices. 3) Commissions charged for municipal bond trades should follow a guideline of a 2% commission charge for each purchase or sale. Anything above 2% will require a written explanation of why the extra charge is needed. 4) Unrated bonds or bonds rated below investment grade require the client to have HIGH Risk Tolerance on their Account Form before they can purchase the bonds. Additional limits on these bonds include a maximum 10% of Liquid Net Worth in one issuer, and 20% in “junk” bonds overall. The new Municipal Bond Purchase Letter of Understanding is available on our web site and is required for all purchases of municipal bonds as of the printing of this article. Submitted by Rick Medland Transaction Compliance Manager Insight Light
May 2011
June 2011
8
ING Update
At the end of 2010, ING made changes to
their sales strategy with the closure of their
variable annuity business and associated
external distribution team.
With many
advisors using ING’s Select Advantage
IRA platform we understand there may be
questions regarding how this product, and
the advisors that use it, will be supported.
Support responsibility for The ING Select
Advantage IRA platform transitioned to
ING’s Annuity and Asset Sales team based
in Des Moines, Iowa. This is a team of 40
that had already been wholesaling ING
annuity products from the home office prior
to the organizational changes. In addition
to a sales desk team that is available from
8:00 to 5:00 CT Monday through Friday,
they have wholesalers who are regionally
assigned to provide you with personalized
sales support. In June, these wholesalers
will be reaching out to each Harbour
Investments advisor to ensure you are
aware of the support that is available and
answer any questions you may have.
How have these changes impacted
sales? From a sales standpoint, ING Select
Advantage has maintained the excellent
momentum that it has had since launch in
early 2010. Through the 1st quarter of 2011,
overall sales continue to beat expectations
and are on target to exceed $1 billion for
the year.
Kevin Lehman
VP, Business Development
ING Annuity and Asset Sales
Table of Contents
Don’t Worry, Be Happy............Page 1
MS Walk 2011............................Page 1
Compliance Annual Questionnaire
....................................................Page 3
Referral Bonus...........................Page 3
Commissions............................ Page 4
DST Vision Professional........... Page 4
Hiring An Assistant...................Page 5
Municipal Bonds.......................Page 6
ING Update................................Page 8
Events, Birthdays & Anniversaries
New Representatives...............Page 9
Sponsors...................................Page 10
May 2011
June 2011
Upcoming Events
Annual Marketing
& Compliance Conference
September 19 - 21, 2011 - The Abbey Resort,
Fontana, WI
Harbour & Markets Closed
May 30 - Memorial Day
Insight Light
Welcome New Harbour
Representatives!
Ralph Stonebraker – Brookfield, WI
Ralph lives in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Ralph joined
Harbour Investments from his previous broker
dealer, Raymond James in February, 2011.
Gerald Jordahl – White Bear Lake, MN
Gerry lives in White Bear Lake, MN. Gerry joined
Harbour Investments from his previous broker
dealer, Princor Financial in March, 2011.
Birthday Wishes!
John Steinke - May 3 - Wisconsin Rapids, WI
Shaefer Oshefsky - May 3 - Green Bay, WI
Gail Aglynas - May 9 - Palos Hills, IL
Aaron Seeman - May 9 - Altoona, WI
Doug Bolter - May 12 - Muskego, WI
David Hoppe - May 14 - Madison, WI
Paul Block - May 14 - LaCrosse, WI
Mike Schwitz - May 24 - Madison, WI
Carol Fasbender - May 24 - St Joseph, MI
Rick Lanius - May 29 - Fitchburg, WI
Ben Kaufmann - June 1 - Lexington, KY
Michael St John - June 2 - Machesney Park, IL
Jim Schiller - June 4 - Milwaukee, WI
Jeff McCall - June 4 - Brookfield, WI
Joe Reno - June 4 - Kalamazoo, MI
Robert Packard - June 8 - Oregon, WI
Robert Berg - June 9 - Stevens Point, WI
Todd Enstad - June 11 - Brooklyn Park, MN
Kevin Kaufmann - June 12 - DePere, WI
Doyle Ranstrom - June 14 - Fargo, ND
Ken Thomack - June 19 - Appleton, WI
9
Gerry Jordahl - June 19 - White Bear Lake, MN
Don Vosters - June 21 - Madison, WI
Jim DeMatthew - June 26 - Racine, WI
Dan Michael - June 27 - Delano, MN
Natalie Braden - June 29 - Kalamazoo, MI
Anniversary Wishes!
David Schachte - May 4, 1998 - Fitchburg, WI
Susan Olson - May 4, 2007 - Sun Prairie, WI
Brian Waelti - May 7, 2004 - Middleton, WI
Don Gross - May 10, 2002 - Waukesha, WI
Ray James - May 16, 2008 - Kalamazoo, MI
Peter Kirsch - May 17, 1989 - Elm Grove, WI
Jeff McCall - May 17, 1989 - Brookfield, WI
Gerard Deprez - May 22, 1998 - Green Bay, WI
Judy Johnson - May 25, 1990 - Green Bay, WI
David Hoppe - May 26, 1989 - Madison, WI
Bill Arnold - May 26, 1992 - Madison, WI
Ken Schirmacher - May 30, 1989 - Appleton, WI
Bruce Bradshaw - June 1, 2007 - Elkhorn, WI
Mark Webb - June 2, 2008 - Madison, WI
Rob Groves - June 3, 1992 - Appleton, WI
Homer Braden - June 3, 2005 - Waterloo, WI
Matt Bayer - June 4, 2004 - Centerville, OH
Joel Radakovitz - June 10, 1998 - Machesney Park, IL
Jason Speich - June 15, 2007 - Madison, WI
Doyle Ranstrom - June 17, 1998 - Fargo, ND
Staff Anniversary Wishes!
Rich O’Leary - June 21, 1999 - Chief Compliance Officer
Participating Sponsors 2011
Platinum Level
Tier I
Advisory Level