Investment Advisor Readers Pick 16th Annual Broker/Dealers of the Year

Investment Advisor Readers Pick 16th Annual Broker/Dealers of the Year

Shrewsbury, New Jersey – August 7, 2006. For the 16th straight year, readers of Investment Advisor, the leading monthly magazine serving more than 84,000 independent financial planners and investment advisors, have chosen their Broker/Dealers of the Year in balloting at www.investmentadvisor.com. Nearly 5,000 representatives of independent broker/dealers judged their own broker/dealers in 15 separate areas—from the quality of home office personnel to technology support—and those broker/dealers that gained the highest composite scores were awarded the honors in four different divisions based on their number of producing reps. The winning B/Ds—three of whom are first-time winners, while the other can boast a multiyear winning streak—will be profiled in Investment Advisor’s September issue, and the presidents of the winning firms have agreed to serve on the newly formed Investment Advisor Broker/Dealer Advisory Board for the next 12 months, helping guide the magazine’s coverage of the thriving independent B/D industry.

Division I (for broker/dealers with up to 199 producing reps): Contemporary Financial Solutions. Based in West Palm Beach and led by group president Scott Yamamura, this relatively young firm (founded in 2002) and a subsidiary of Pacific Life Insurance Company gained its first-ever Broker/Dealer of the Year honor through the high marks given by its reps for the quality of the home office’s communications with reps and for its trading platform.

Division II (covering B/Ds with from 200 to 499 reps): The Investment Center. Another first time winner, based in Bridgewater, New Jersey, and led by founder and president Ralph DeVito, this B/D’s reps lauded the firm for its back-office support and its fee-based programs.

Division III (for firms with from 500 to 999 reps): NEXT Financial Group. Based in Houston and led by interim president Gordon D’Angelo, who is also chairman, president, and CEO of NEXT’s holding company, NEXT won B/D of the Year honors for an unprecedented sixth straight year, garnering particular praise from its reps for the timely payment of commissions and its trading platform.

Division IV (for B/Ds with more than 1,000 reps): Woodbury Financial Services. This independent B/D, a unit of The Hartford based in Woodbury, Minnesota, and led by president Brian Murphy, won Broker/Dealer of the Year for the first time in the biggest division. Its reps gave special praise to Woodbury for its timely commission payments, management, and product list.

About Investment Advisor
With a circulation of 84,000, Investment Advisor magazine, based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, and New York, is now in its 26th year of serving independent-and independent-minded-investment advisors and financial planners across the United States. Investment Advisor offers information and analysis on investment strategies, practice management, wealth management, compliance and regulatory issues, and retirement, insurance, and tax planning, all designed to help independent advisors become more successful.

Investment Advisor is part of WICKS Business Information (www.wbi.com), a rapidly growing media company that creates and delivers critical information to senior financial and legal executives via four publications, four Web sites, eight newsletters, and four conferences. WBI is an affiliate of The Wicks Group of Companies (www.wicksgroup.com), a New York-based private equity firm focused on selected segments of the communications, information, and media industries.