In addition to concerns about so-called pay-to-play practices, they have questions about the use of soft-dollar arrangements, in which brokers collect higher commissions on trades in return for providing research and other services to advisors.
The company has a 6.6% dividend, and Kramer says some high-net-worth brokers are pushing Verizon as a better investment than certificates of deposit, which have about a 1% return now.