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Monday, August 31, 2009

Monday, 31-August-2009

Nothing to report today.


Friday, 28-August-2009

Day off.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Thursday, 27-August-2009

Fairly quiet day, because Boss was out first half of the day. HK called in sick this morning, so the minute I walk in Boss is asking for things for her appointment. She just assumed i knew what was needed demanding the paperwork. I quickly had to get the paperwork to switch the UGMA to an Individual Account. The client making the switch is actually in his mid-30s. Little late to be making the switch?

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Wednesday, 26-August-2009

1) One of the main products Boss is pushing is the American Legacy i4Life Rider. What this rider specifically does, is that it guarantees monthly income to the client that meets the requirements. The rider works like this, the client has to qualify (ie. ages 50+, 60+, etc.), you deposit money into the variable annuity, and American Legacy immediately sends you monthly checks. The monthly checks are applied against the principal first. When the principal approaches zero, the client is still made monthly checks until they pass away (ie. client wins overall: sum of monthly checks > deposit). If the client passes away, the monthly checks cease (ie. insurance company wins: sum of monthly checks < deposit.) This product guarantees income if one is fortunate enough to outlive the policey.

Client DW called the other day complaining that he received his 1st payment and it reduced his principal. So Boss didn't know why and called up Wholesaler RB at American Legacy. I overheard Boss on the phone and she did not understand how the whole mechanics of the rider worked. Comment: This is a major problem, because she put a lot of clients in this rider the last few months. HK had tried to explain this rider to her months ago and Boss did not listen. HK didn't have a responsibility to tell her, because it's the financial advisors' job to understand the product. So all in all, Boss sold a product to a lot of her clients with little to no knowledge.

2) Boss asked us to repair some mistakes on the summaries we distribute to clients that were over 4 years ago. She verbally bashes us saying there are too many mistakes on these statements. Comment: These so-called mistakes were done by our predecessors. I think what makes the generation of summaries so difficult is that it's all manual. Also, each summary is on a case by case basis; hence, no consistency. To blame HK or I on something we didn't do is just wrong. And why these so-called mistakes weren't caught earlier in the prior years and all of the sudden they have become an issue is beyond me.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Tuesday, 25-August-2009

Boss was in a bad mood today, because a client called and asked why we sent i4Life Paperwork when the client had a Roth Variable Annuity. So Boss yells at HK, because apparently, we do not solicit i4Life for non-Traditional Annuities. Comment: I don't see what the fuss is all about. If the Variable Annuity makes sense for the client, it should not matter if it's Traditional or Roth.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Monday, 24-August-2009

1) RR NC inherited a client from RR JS in WA that needed assistance, because her husband passed away. At the time, when she called 1 month ago, I took the message and talked to Boss, because RR NC had told the client to contact us, because he was never registered in WA. I specifically asked should we contact the client and even suggested that we possibly change the agent assigned to the account. She said that when NC is registered, he can contact them. I faxed a message to RR NC to have them contact the client once he was registered.

It was later found out that NC doesn't even have his Series 63, 65, or 66.

The client called last week wondering why she hasn't received a phone call. Boss told HK to contact RR NC to have them talk to the client. HK even suggested that isn't that illegal that RR NC to contact the client since he was unregistered. Boss said, "No, it's not." Comment: I think Boss is wrong like 60-70% of the time. It just amazes me how she seems to make up her own rules along the way.

2) HK told me today that BR received last week a survey from an employment agency for airport security regarding an employee that use to work here. Boss filled out the survey very negatively and gave all bad remarks regarding the former employee. It turns out that the same employee actually helped discover another employee that was stealing $80k from Boss. Comment: Talk about sabotaging someone's career.


Vacation for me 17-August-2009 to 21-August-2009

Friday, August 14, 2009

Friday, August 14, 2009.

I had to give a demonstration of the Garmin GPS that Boss had bought for her bf, BC. I think I spoke a little too fast, because BC was having a hard time following. I didn't realize until after 1 hour, he had never seen these GPS' function. So I opted that we went on a test drive, too. We go on a small test drive (ie. to/from the office/home). As we are coming back to the office, we park, and Boss comes running out. I dont think she liked the idea that I went on a test run with BC. That was about it today. Today was relatively quiet. I had to print a list of T.Rowe Price and Vanguard at 129%. That actually took longer than I thought to bloom them up so Boss could see.

Thursday, August 13, 2009.

I only worked 1/2 day today, because I had to sit in for the Series 66 exam (which I passed with a 73.) I swung by Burger King for lunch and had the HOTTEST whopper ever. This thing must have come directly off the grill. If I had burnt myself, maybe I could have sued for the fact that the whopper was too hot. So I get to work at 1330 and JG and Boss are pulling in. They ask for the results and Boss gives me her sarcastic tone on how I passed with just a 73.

I didn't see her much that day, since she was busy with HK and catching up on her own work; hence, nothing to report.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Wednesday, August 12, 2009.
1) We're not allowed to answer the phones anymore even if BR is on the phone with someone. Before we were told that if the phone rang 3x, someone had to pick it up.
2) So I'm trying to clean up the SEC B&R Alerts. There are a lot of clients that have missing AIF's, so I'm trying to clean it up. I've been putting together letters and having HK sign them. Well, today, HK forwarded all my letters to have Boss add some notes. Boss than comes back and asks why are we doing this? It is important that we contact the client over the phone and get the mandatory information on the AIF. Comment: Funny how things change. Almost all of the KOA accounts I had already sent out letters and AIF's to be updated. Now all of the sudden we have to call. If we can't get ahold of them, than Boss will call them directly.


Tuesday, August 11, 2009.

I witnessed only second hand half of what I'm about to say. It made me both disgusted and very sad, on what HK told me. So today Client FS walks in and wants to close his account, because he needs the money. HK retrieves Boss, because she needs to be aware of everyone closing their account (ie. talk them out of it, etc.) When Boss came out, she didn't shake Client FS hand, like she normally does to every one of her other clients. She told FS, that she was sad to hear that he was taking his money out (this is her generic response) and asked specifically why he was doing so. Client FS said he needed to take money out for his credit card bills. Boss than asked how much? FS said $20k. Boss begins to say that the national credit card average is $30k and that she would not be able to match the returns on the APR of the credit card. Client FS mentions that he has this state retirement (ie. 457 plan) and wanted to see if Boss could help him with that. Boss laughs and says why would you need help with that, so you can immediately transfer it out? She said we will not help you with that. Boss says a few other things and said if you ever have more money, come back and we can invest it. Comment: FS was of African-American decent or 'Colored People' as Boss has referred to them twice in my presence.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Monday, August 10, 2009

1A) Boss is advising a client to transfer money from UTMA account to the gift giver. Comment: I have no idea why she's advising client PH to do this. Comment: Gifts are suppose to be irrevocable; hence, anything put into a UTMA is a gift. I hope the UTMA account holder does not come back to sue.
1B) My partner, HK, printed some stuff from the IRS.gov website and told the Boss the possible repercussions the minor could do down the road (ie. sue, etc.). Boss' response, "We don't care what the IRS says in this case." Comment: OMG.
2) In the meeting today, Boss continues to say that Compliance Department does not encourage correspondence to be handled in the form of e-mail. Comment: She's got it backwards, compliance DOES want representatives to perform correspondence via email. This way, it's easily traceable.
3) In the meeting today, Boss emphasized that the continuing education Firm Element needs to be done on personal time and not during work-time. Comment: I'm really shocked she even made an annoucement of this. The Firm Element is business related.
Friday, August 7, 2009

Boss was not present today, since she was out in Seattle with OSJ-B.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Thursday, August 6, 2009.

Today was a crazy day. The information I'm about to write doesn't necessarily pertain to me, but it's something I witnessed firsthand. An OSJ from another region was visiting Boss from San Diego was pretty much at work all day today. The OSJ (aka OSJ-B) from San Diego was very shocked on how we handle things at work.

1) Today was HK's birthday breakfast celebration. So everyone met in the conference room except for JG and Boss (which they arrived later, due to a conference call.) So after about 15-20 minutes, both JG and Boss show up and Boss comes in and says that Financial Network is finally being partnered up with someone else. Boss blurts out some other news and the OSJ from San Diego has this puzzled look. Even though she did not sit in the conference call, it sounded like she was 'surprised' of the news that Boss had just said. OSJ-B had a few responses, because she was looking for clarification and possibly wanted to send emails out to her Regional Director or Representatives and Boss wasn't able to concrete news. Boss kept on saying it would happen within a week and possibly within 2 days. Comment: OSJ-B probably was obviously surprised on the news and was prying for details and Boss wasn't able to give them. Personally, I found Boss' recap a little confusing. We will see in 5 business days if anything materializes. Based on what I've seen in the last 8 months, Boss is just making stuff up.

2) So the OSJ-B is telling stories on how she runs her business. Boss hears this and tells HK, JG, and myself that OSJ-B does things 'differently' down in San Diego. According to Boss, they run business operations differently. So Boss says that OSJ-B receives most of her money from overrides on other reps while Boss maintains a book. OSJ-B responds and says that 50% of her Net Income/Pay is from overrides and the other 50% is from her own book. I heard her mention that revenue was on the lines of $2mm. So Boss gets defensive and tries to make an argument that Net Income/Pay is not a true evaluator and that Net Gross is a better indicator. Boss was arguing that the 50% from her book Gross was not 50% from the overrides. (I didn't want to get into the debate, but who in their right mind would make an argument on Gross. Net is what goes into the bank account!) So Boss was getting defensive and was saying that OSJ-B spent more time managing and that Boss couldn't do that management style, because Boss was seeing 4 clients per day. OSJ-B in return, got defensive and said she does spend a lot of her time managing her book. This went back and forth for a little bit. Comment: Boss was just trying to make herself feel better by trying to put OSJ-B down and saying that the reason she's probably doing better is because of the rep overrides she receives.

3) OSJ-B discussed how her clientelle was mostly on wrap fees. Boss defends her book and says that she can't bring herself to put clients in that fee structure, because it's hard to justify the value and doesn't feel that if she didn't do an adequate job, it's hard to justify the % of asset fee that is charged to the client on an annual basis. Comment: A lot of bosses clients are on variable annuities which carry an expense higher than 1% annually. Not sure how my Boss can make the argument she doesn't want her clients being charged a wrap fee annually, when they're practically paying that already in the form of an annuity.

4) OSJ-B asks Boss how is the network encrypted. Boss comes out and says she has no idea and not to ask her those things because she doesn't want to deal with anything else other than managing. Comment: Talk about pure laziness. If Boss doesn't want the responsibilities that come with managing, she shouldn't be doing it. I think EVERYONE would love to sit back and call themselves OSJ manager and do absolutely nothing.

5) So OSJ-B and JG went to buy some RAM for our computers today. JG used his credit card and would seek reimbursement. Boss finds out and nearly flips out. She was arguing that JG should not have put that on the credit card, because it would be a red flag if an auditor caught it. And she said she knows this, because of her experience with audits. Comments: um...i'm not even sure I need to explain this. Since when does a red flag arise if a business expense and business expense reimbursement is properly documented with receipts. I believe in my 10 year tenure of working, it's pretty common for people to fill out an expense report and be reimbursed respectively.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009

1) HK made a mistake on a client trade and Boss should be reimbursing the client for the mistake which was about $6.8K. However, no action is happening.

2) Went to Elmer's with Boss and Jim today to listen to two people from DWS. Boss asked a few terrible questions where both the Wholesaler and the Money Manager had a very difficult time grasping what she was asking.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Tuesday, August 4, 2009.
I had to catch up on a lot of items today, seeing how I was out Monday. Boss had the doctor sign a note so that she could avoid jury duty. The doctor's note said that she has acuity vision of seeing only fingers in front of her and 20/80 vision in her left eye. Comment: Scary thought: she drives.

HK showed me a couple documents that Boss signed and she didn't even sign in the correct area.


Monday, August 3, 2009.

Today was Rep DU audit out in Yakima. After the audit, we went to get something to eat at the Powerhouse Grill. The portions were very generous and out of all the food we ordered, there was not enough table space in the booth we were sitting in. Boss ordered omelet and hash browns and it was huge. Due to the size, she asked that the server bring small plates so she could divide up what she could not eat. When she handed some hash browns to DU she knocked over the little saucer carrying his syrup. The worst part about her mistake, she did not realize that she did it.

I ended up driving home. We stopped at 2 fruit stands to buy some local produce. I had to catch her on the first stop, because she was picking fruit from an area that was clearly marked with several signs 'Please Do Not Pick' (the area was designated to buy the fruit in the basket as is.)

After the 2.5 hour drive home, I was dropped off at Costco, because Boss wanted to try and make Chapel at 4pm.
July 27-31

Did several audits, so that required traveling. I'll have to revise any notes at a later time.