Broker-dealers lean toward stinginess when it comes to supporting their advisors' marketing and practice management needs, according to a new survey.
   Qfinance, a provider of Web-based research tools for financial advisors, found that only 22.5% of the nation's largest independent broker-dealers provided at least one staff member to tend to marketing and practice management services.
   The survey gave the highest marks to Linsco/Private Ledger (LPL), Securities America and Commonwealth Financial Network. The worst performers, according to Qfinance officials, exhibited little knowledge of the meaning of practice management.
   "We were shocked (at) how many firms had no idea what we were talking about when we used the term 'practice management,'" says Greg Harris, director of Qfinance. "Our call team captured some quotes that would made great comedy material... One executive actually said, 'the advisor's business is the advisor's business.'"