Financial Services & Recruiting academyrecruiting on 18 Jan 2008 03:08 pm
There’s always a BUT - look closely at those financial services numbers
It’s pretty much impossible to not notice all the big quarterly losses just reported at the major financial services firms.
BUT…
In the midst of all the gloom-and-doom, harsh commentary, and dire predictions, don’t fail to take note of something else very important that’s gotten buried in the stories: the wealth management divisions (i.e., where all the financial advisors are) at these firms have continued to do very well - the problems have been with the mortgage-related divisions.
Here’s a few examples from the top three firms:
- Citigroup/Smith Barney: Citigroup’s 4Q loss was $9.83 billion, BUT Smith Barney’s Q4 revenue was $2.8 billion, 27% more than the same quarter in the previous year.
http://registeredrep.com/advisorland/career/citi_losses_mount/
- Morgan Stanley: 4Q loss of $9.7 billion, BUT Global Wealth Management’s pre-tax margin for the fourth quarter was 21%.
http://www.morganstanley.com/about/ir/shareholder/4q2007.html
- Merrill Lynch: 4Q loss of $9.91 billion, BUT the Global Wealth Management group reported revenue of $3.6 billion, 12% more than the same quarter in the previous year.
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200801171612DOWJONESDJONLINE001103_FORTUNE5.htm
Hey, I’d be the last person to minimize the current financial problems or potential recession talk, BUT I am asking you to keep things in perspective. It’s just like I’ve said before - there is demand for financial advisors, and I don’t want what you hear in the news every day to make you think that there isn’t.
