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Tom Nally, the head of TD Ameritrade Institutional, kicked off the custodian firms national conference in San Diego with an appeal to the 2,000 advisors present: Dont get complacent.

Events of the day underscored his point: The conference kicked off just as rival Charles Schwab, the largest custodian for independent investment advisors, announced they were slashing commissionson trades 22 percent to $6.95, signaling a price war between the online brokerage and custodial firms and sending TD Ameritrades stock down 12 percent the next day.

Related: The Other Regulatory Changes Coming For Advisors

On the second day of the conference, president Donald Trump ordered the Department of Labor to perform an economic and legal review of its pending fiduciary rule, slated to go into effect April 10. Most notably, the president told the DOL to delay the rule if it needed time to accomplish that goal, a signal most observers conclude will lead to a delay and possible repeal.

Despite the curveballs, Nallys message for the 2,000 advisors attending the conference was clear: RIAs are the fastest growing business channel in the industry,boosted by a cultural shift away fromthe conflicted compensation structures that bedevil the brokerage business, much of that driven by a growing public awareness around the fiduciary standard and the different compensation models between advisors and brokers.

Related: TD Bank Economist: Fiscal Policy Clouds The Future of 2017

With that greater public scrutiny around fees and services, he said, clients are more likely to focus on how much they are paying their investment advisor and what they are getting in return. Too often, he said, thats merely providing investment portfolios. Firms that charge clients a percentage of their assets under management in return for that are in danger of seeing those clients turn away.

Investors will focus on the cost of advice if you dont show them value, he said. Its important to review pricing structures and focus on articulating how your pricing structure reflects the services you deliver, he said.

Many RIAs, he said, are taking advantage of the trend to highlight their business model to clients; Nally pointed to a recent TD Ameritrade Institutional advisor survey which showed that 17 percent of RIAs plan to spend more on marketingthan any other business channel in the coming year.

To help advisors make that switch to a more client-focused practice, TD Ameritrade Institutional announced during the conference some continued improvements to many of the new offerings for advisors, particularly enhancements to the firms advisor platform Veo.

That includes VEO One, a version of VEO that brings 14 of the more widely used technology providers, including eMoney, Morningstar, Salesforce, LaserFiche, Black Diamond, Junxure and others, directly into TD Ameritrade Institutionals platform. That gives advisors a single point of sign on and automates notifications between all of the vendors for, the custodian says, a more seamless workflow experience.

Veo One Analytics is another upgrade to the Veo platform that brings all of the benchmarking data from the recently acquired research firm, FA Insights, into an interactive portal of business diagnostic and benchmarking tools. Thats designed to give advisors quick and easy access to metrics around their particular practice, including client demographics and behavior, client profitability, and how those metrics compare to other advisory firms of similar size.

TD Ameritrade Insitutional also announced they were bringing a suite of model portfolios to their iRebal rebalancing software. The Institutional Model Market Center will let RIAs put their own portfolios into iRebal, or pull from a supermarket of third-party model portfolios while still retaining trading discretion over the accounts. The company didnt reveal the list of model portfolios that will be brought onto the platform or pricing, only saying it will be cheaper than traditional outsourced money managers.

Read more:
TDAI's Nally: RIAs Winning the Culture Wars - WealthManagement.com

In a sign of whats to come for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), President Donald Trump told pharmaceutical company CEOs Tuesday that his administration will be cutting regulations at a level no one has ever seen before.'

George W. Plunkitt. He Seen His Opportunities, and He Took Em.

Ryan claims that Obamacare has put Medicare under deeper financial stress. Precisely the opposite is true.

I love this new world, I no longer have to be politically correct.

Spencer and Miller first came to know each other in the late 2000s as students at Duke University, where they both belonged to the Duke Conservative Union.

Anything we can do to keep from having abortions, or to keep them from not knowing what is available, I will support.

The State of Oklahoma strongly urges you to contact them if you are pregnant.

Repealing the Affordable Care Act would result in 32 million Americans losing their health insurance by 2026, according to an analysis published [Jan. 17]by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation. The CBO also calculated that in the first new plan year after enactment, premiums for those in the individual market would have risen by 20-25 percent, and then would almost double by 2026.

Brandis could be the story of thousands of LGBTQ men and women born to evangelical families.

Jewish community centers in 17 states were evacuated [Jan. 18]following a wave of bomb threats, which echoed a similar grouping of threats on Jan. 9.

Maybe the media should take a hard look at how it covers a predictable, lightly attended act of agitprop which claims to represent hundreds of thousands of people whonever show up.

Most Trump evangelicals I talk with love his recent executive order banning refugees from Muslim countries.

While the White House scrambled to contain the widening furor over his ban on refugees and immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries, the administration was laying the groundwork for a vast expansion of the nations deportation system.

The program, Countering Violent Extremism' or CVE, would be changed to Countering Islamic Extremism or Countering Radical Islamic Extremism, the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white supremacists who have also carried out bombings and shootings in the United States.

This action benefits no one, except facilities who have harmed animals and dont want anyone to know.

Quite simply, Trump is trying to bully federal judges out ofruling against him andsuggesting those that do are not legitimate members of the federal courts.

So every policy move Trump makes can be used to enrich himself and his family personally with no legal obligation for anyone outside the family to know about it.

The resolution to erase the prepaid rules are just the beginning of the new administration and legislatures action to weaken the CFPBs ability to protect consumers and financial regulations.

I have a very hard time believing that the net effect of pumping $40 billion worth of weapons into the world in a single year can possibly be to reduce the level of global violence and or avoid increasing the lethality of conflict.

Where alt-facts prove more devilish than old-school lies, even the cleverly concealed ones, is in their abandonment of reality altogether, their leap from the verifiable to the realm of pure belief.

Historical studies suggest that it takes 3.5 percent of a population engaged in sustained nonviolent resistance to topple brutal dictatorships.

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The culture wars and the class war have merged - Patheos (blog)

ORION -- Henry County mayors are refusing to pay the countys proposed new charge for police dispatching.

Mayor James Cooper told trustees Monday that a letter to the county which he delivered to the courthouse last week includes the mayors refusal to pay. He said Annawan Mayor Tim Wise gave him the letter, and he collected signatures and turned it in to the county.

Orion is being asked to pay $4,400 to start with this year, eventually working up to an estimated $17,500.

He cited a number of reasons for the refusal. No one had advance warning. The calls include those outside municipal boundaries. There are charges each time an officer logs on and off. In the case of both Orion and Cambridge, the towns already have contracts with the county that include wording about paying for dispatching. Orion is paying about $200,000 per year for police coverage. He said he didnt know how the county distributed the costs or even how it arrived at the original sum for police dispatching. Towns like Bishop Hill, Osco and Lynn Center were not included.

There are just a lot of things in there that need to be addressed and clarified, he said. The only fair way to do this is everyone in the county pays to do this.

We do understand costs are an issue and are willing to be included in that fee, but we need to be included in how youre figuring that, he added.

Trustee Steve Newman suggested the change might cause the village to re-think its mode of policing.

We may bring back the idea of maybe having our own police, maybe having full-time coverage; I dont know, he said.

Mayor Cooper said he felt the county is aware of the unpopularity of its concept, and it may not move forward from a Feb. 9 public safety meeting to the Feb. 16 county board for a vote, but stranger things have happened.

The board also got an update on the failure of the countys storm siren. Mayor Cooper reported Supreme Radio is coming to Orion at no charge to change the radio frequency to enable the fire department to set off sirens. The mayor said he was adamant that this is a temporary fix because the village doesnt have around-the-clock personnel to monitor events.

He said county emergency management director Mat Schnepple and public safety chairman Marshall Jones met with him in Orion and stood by the countys decision to wait for a federal grant to fix the emergency siren. He said he felt if anything were to happen in the interim, residents would blame him as the mayor and his son-in-law as fire chief.

Trustee Bob Mitton said he got blank looks when he first confronted the county after noticing the absence of Tuesday's test sirens. Mayor Cooper repeated his dismay that it had been six months after the county first found out about the problem in July. He said he was confident the three affected villages including Annawan and Woodhull would have come up with the $5,500 to repair the siren had they known about it.

It could be a year before thats fixed is what were looking at now, he said.

Read more from the original source:
Orion mayor: Towns defying proposed fees - Quad-Cities Online

Washington D.C. Moroccos warning to the European Union over their trade deal is a breath of fresh air in the otherwise stale Moroccan diplomatic dealings with Europe.

After enduring years of economic, diplomatic and public relations manipulation at the hands of some European nations, the Moroccan diplomacy is rousing with a new assertive approach to defend its vital interests and to build a relationship based on mutual respect and shared interests. Morocco warning to the EU is away overdue.

The EU needs to reconsider its neo-colonialist approach to its economic relations with Morocco. For years, the North African nation has been a good neighbor, an understanding partner, a flexible negotiator and an active cohort in every common pursuit with Europe, Yet, the European attitude has been arrogant, hypocrite and condescending.

Since his accession to the throne, King Mohammed VI made every efforts to build strong and equitable relations with Europe especially Spain and France. While Paris has been a good friend, Madrid has been flaky, unreliable and double-dealer.

From its unconditional cooperation in stopping illegal immigrations and drugs to its proactive support in tracking terrorists and extremists, Morocco has been a model partner for the Europeans. To the contrary, Brussels has been second-guessing Moroccan positions in the Sahara conflict opposing the Kingdom to Algeria. The EU has taken Morocco for granted for years and views Rabat sympathetic positions on immigration and security as a weakness and vulnerability.

Moroccos opponents, namely Algeria and its allies, have portrayed the Moroccan-European relations as one way street where the North African nation collects all kinds of benefits and grants as handouts. The truth is that both entities gain form a healthy bilateral trade.

The strengthening of the Moroccan economy is good for the EU since it strengthen the domestic market and enhance the purchasing powers of the locals who tend to buy European products. A trade hiatus would damage some European economies that deals extensively with Morocco and would lead to great instability and insecurity in the Mediterranean and an unescapable wave of migration and illicit drugs.

The recent harassment in some European ports of the Norwegian vessel Key Bay, that was transporting fishing oil from a Moroccan port to Europe, is unacceptable. In fact, Morocco should counter any attempt to block Moroccan agriculture products from entering into the European market by a halting intelligence and security cooperation with the EU.

Furthermore, Morocco should expel Spanish fishing boats from its territorial waters. Spaniards cannot have their cake and eat it. Morocco may not be looking for confrontations; however, such unfriendly attitudes cannot go unnoticed and unanswered.

If the EU decides to pick and choose the type of Moroccan fishing and farming merchandise to allow into its territory based on the origins of the product, then Rabat should also establish the kind of cooperation needed to keep this selective relations alive. Nevertheless, the deal should not stay as it stands today unless the EU treats all Moroccan products equally.

A Moroccan product , be it from Tangier or Laayoune, is made in Morocco the same way as a Spanish product that is manufactured in Madrid, Barcelona or Bilbao is sill made in Spain.

Morocco has kept the Western Mediterranean in a largely peaceful atmosphere when it can easily create periods of tension that would develop into political crisis for some European governments. Rabat understanding attitudes on immigration and shared intelligence alone is key to political stability in some European capitals.

Regardless of the fate of the Morocco-EU deal, Rabat should expand its economic outreach further in Africa and build stronger commercial ties with India, China, Japan and Russia. Furthermore, the close diplomatic and political bonds between the Kingdom and the Arab Gulf monarchies should translate into even bigger economic ties. Moroccos newfound markets will easily offset EU investments and grants offered to Rabat.

Moroccan officials need to do their part also by appointing competent ambassadors who are well equipped to deal with the types of judicial hurdles the country will encounter in Brussels.

Moroccan embassies, in some European capitals, need to have resident legal experts familiar with the Western Sahara conflict. Moreover, economic attaches at Moroccan diplomatic missions should have strong negotiation skills and a good knowledge of the legal aspects of the Sahara dossier.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent any institution or entity.

Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Morocco Should Stand Up to the European Union Trade Provocations - Morocco World News

A woman and her children carry containers of water on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday. Avalanches have killed more than 100 people in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Rahmat Gul/AP hide caption

A woman and her children carry containers of water on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday. Avalanches have killed more than 100 people in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Afghan officials say more than 100 people died in avalanches over the weekend, after nearly 10 feet of snow buried some parts of the country around Kabul and east to the Pakistan border.

Dozens of houses were destroyed and "people were reported to have frozen to death, trapped in cars," according to the BBC.

Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul was closed on Sunday, after nearly 2 feet of snow covered the runways, according to Afghanistan's TOLO News, and north of the capital, the Salang pass into the Hindu Kush mountains was reportedly buried under 7 feet of snow.

At least one helicopter was shuttling supplies and people to the province of Nuristan, on the border with Pakistan northeast of Kabul, where provincial Gov. Hafiz Abdul Qayyom told Agence France-Presse that at least 64 people were killed. Most of the deaths occurred in one devastated village, he said.

"Most affected are women and children," he told Al Jazeera on Sunday. "The area is completely blocked because of snow so it is very difficult for us to send support, but we are trying our best."

CNN reported that people also died in an avalanche on the other side of the border, in Pakistan. The BBC said at least 13 people there died, nine of them in the town of Chitral.

Al Jazeera reported that parts of the mountainous region received more than 5 feet of snow over the weekend, and that "scattered snowfall" was forecast for Monday in the Chitral valley.

The AFP reported that some hard-hit areas in Afghanistan were still not accessible on Monday:

"There had been no word yet from some villages in Nuristan, which Qayyom said had received nearly [10 feet] of snow, with blocked roads and mountainous terrain hampering the rescue effort.

" 'We will evacuate wounded victims to the city of Jalalabad for treatment,' [Qayyom] said, adding that skies were clear on Monday."

Jalalabad is the capital of Nangarhar province, also on the Pakistan border. The U.S. says most Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan are located in Nangarhar, and that it has been attacking the region with drones, as The Two-Way has reported.

NATO has more than 13,000 international troops on the ground in Afghanistan as part of a so-called train, advise and assist mission to the country. The mission, named Resolute Support, did not announce any plans to assist directly in the rescue or cleanup effort following the avalanches, but did share a photo on Twitter of soldiers playing in the snow at Bagram Airfield.

Read more here:
More Than 100 People Killed In Afghanistan Avalanches - NPR