In many cases, too easy. They can only blame themselves. And everyone, it seems, has their favorite horror story. Their hot stock tips are the disaster story du jour. They charge too much and they never ever call with good ideas.
Good brokers understand that.
Really, all they ask is not to be painted with the same broad brush that tars the dregs of the industry. And that someone else usually is the broker handling the trade. Conversely, if a client is fortunate enough to ride Lucent Technologies to an 175 percent gain, you know who claims the bragging rights. Whether the full-service industry goes the way of the dinosaurs remains to be seen. It will depend, in part, on whether the generation reared with computers turns its back on what it perceives as the martini generation.