Por MATT MOFFETT e DAVID ENRICH, de Madri

O Banco Santander SA

informou ontem que o seu diretor-presidente, Alfredo Sáenz, pediu demissão. O anúncio ocorreu após uma onda de críticas a uma iniciativa recente do governo espanhol, que abrandou as regras de conduta para executivos de bancos para permitir que Sáenz permanecesse no cargo, apesar de ele ter sido condenado num processo criminal.

Um porta-voz do banco central espanhol, o Banco da Espanha, disse que o anúncio foi um “passo positivo” que deve ter um “efeito favorável na estabilidade do setor financeiro espanhol”, mas não deu detalhes sobre o pedido de demissão do executivo de 70 anos. Sáenz será substituído por Javier Marín, atual diretor-gerente do banco.

As ações do Santander subiram após o anúncio da saída de Sáenz.

A decisão foi tomada após discussões entre Sáenz e autoridades do banco central, segundo pessoas a par das conversas. Pelo menos uma delas disse que o banco central sinalizou a Sáenz que a conclusão mais provável da instituição seria que ele não poderia permanecer no cargo, sugerindo que o BC tinha uma posição mais rígida do que o governo do primeiro-ministro Mariano Rajoy com relação ao caso.

Nem o banco central nem o Santander quiseram comentar se o BC teve alguma influência na saída do executivo.

Sáenz assumiu como diretor-presidente do Santander em 2002 e deu ênfase à expansão do banco na Espanha de forma a reduzir sua exposição ao setor imobiliário — que acabou quebrando muitos de seu rivais. Ele também promoveu a expansão em mercados internacionais, como Grã-Bretanha e Brasil. No Brasil, o Santander ocupa a posição de terceiro maior banco privado, atrás do Itaú e do Bradesco

. Seus ativos no país somavam R$ 448,6 bilhões no fim de março.

Sáenz foi condenado em 2009 por ter feito acusações criminais falsas contra clientes endividados em um caso que remontava a 15 anos antes, quando ele comandava outro banco. Depois que ele perdeu uma série de recursos, o governo o perdoou em 2011, livrando-o de uma sentença de três meses de prisão. Mas em fevereiro, a Suprema Corte decidiu que o perdão não o eximia de sofrer sanções no setor bancário.

O governo de Rajoy baixou então um decreto revogando uma proibição de que executivos de bancos tivessem condenações criminais. Pelo decreto de 12 de abril, o BC não é mais obrigado a destituir ou suspender um executivo da indústria financeira devido a condenações criminais. Em vez disso, o BC deve avaliar a gravidade do crime tendo em vista “os antecedentes profissionais e pessoais” de cada executivo.

O decreto foi criticado na Espanha como tendo sido feito só para beneficiar Sáenz.

Analistas disseram que a saída de Sáenz indica que as autoridades do banco central espanhol estão assumindo um novo papel assertivo ao pressionar por mudanças nos maiores bancos comerciais do país, num momento em que elas supervisionam um imenso resgate de bancos menores e debilitados.

Sáenz e o Santander parecem ter chegado à conclusão de que o preço de mantê-lo no cargo era alto demais, disseram analistas.

“[A imagem de] Sáenz ficou significativamente desgastada com o processo legal”, disse Manuel Romera, chefe do programa do setor financeiro da Faculdade de Administração IE, de Madri. Romera destacou que Sáenz já tem uma idade avançada e que o Santander tinha inúmeras pessoas capazes de substituí-lo.

José Luis Peydró, professor da Faculdade de Pós-Graduação em Economia de Barcelona e da Universidade Pompeu Fabra, ​​disse que não considera grave o crime de Sáenz. Mas disse também que a recessão na Espanha e as críticas às práticas de crédito dos bancos do país tornaram a imagem pública deles mais vulnerável.

“Nós estamos em crise e os bancos estão bastante cientes [da necessidade] de fazer o que for possível para manter a confiança elevada”, disse Peydró, que acredita que preocupações com relação à confiança podem ter provocado a saída de Sáenz.

A saída do executivo foi um revés para o presidente do conselho do Santander, Emilio Botín, que insistia até recentemente que não havia nenhuma razão para ele renunciar.

O substituto de Sáenz, Marín, é um veterano de 22 anos de banco que também tem uma relação próxima com Botín, segundo pessoas que conhecem Marín. Recentemente, ele vinha assumindo algumas funções adicionais, como ter reuniões com analistas, investidores e banqueiros em Londres.

Há tempos, investidores e analistas fora da Espanha se queixam que a cultura do Santander e dos seus altos executivos é muito insular e receiam que as preocupações com relação à governança do banco tenham afetado a sua credibilidade.

“O problema é uma cultura em que um pequeno acionista governa como se fosse um dos principais”, disse Martin Buhlmann, diretor-presidente da Vereiningung Institutioneller Privatanleger EV, que representa um grupo de investidores institucionais cujos votos corresponderam a 20 milhões de ações do Santander na última assembleia de acionistas.

O Santander anunciou também a saída do presidente do comitê de auditoria e cumprimento de normas, Manuel Soto. Ele será substituído por um diretor independente, Guillermo de la Dehesa Romero.

Por MIN ZENG

Pacific Investment Management Co., el fondo de bonos más grande del mundo, redujo sus tenencias de deuda soberana española e italiana, en medio de un fuerte repunte en ambos mercados este mes.

La firma de gestión de dinero ha estado vendiendo deuda europea en las últimas dos semanas como parte de reducción generalizada en la exposición a activos de riesgo en los mercados de renta fija, dijo Andrew Balls, titular de gestión de cartera europea de Pimco, en una entrevista concedida el miércoles a The Wall Street Journal.

Balls declinó especificar el monto en dólares que Pimco ha vendido en bonos españoles e italianos. Pimco gestiona más de US$2 billones en activos globales.

El ejecutivo dijo que el repunte en los precios de la deuda italiana y española —que hace poco arrastró el rendimiento de la deuda a 10 años a su nivel más bajo desde 2010—, fue impulsada por la inyección de liquidez de los principales bancos centrales, que por el momento ha eclipsado los problemas fiscales y económicos de la eurozona.

“Este repunte, inspirado por los bancos centrales, ha encarecido los mercados”, dijo Balls. “Los rendimientos podrían caer aún más en España e Italia, pero hemos vendido porque todavía nos preocupan los fundamentos en la eurozona”.

Balls agregó que, tras su reciente venta, las posiciones de Pimco en deuda española e italiana, en algunas carteras, van ahora “desde ‘neutra’ a algo por ‘debajo de ponderación del mercado’”, mientras que la exposición a otras carteras sigue siendo “desde ‘neutra’ a algo ‘sobre ponderación del mercado’”.

Pimco tomará importantes decisiones sobre su cartera general en su reunión anual, programada para el mes entrante, indicó Balls.

Agregó que los rendimientos en España e Italia deben subir en forma significativa antes que evaluar nuevas compras. Pimco tampoco tiene bonos soberanos de Grecia, Portugal e Irlanda, pese a que también han registrado alzas.

El miércoles, el bono italiano a 10 años rendía 4,01%, mientras que su contraparte español a igual plazo rendía 4,3%.

By KELLY K. SPORS

It’s a common scenario: Someone walks into a chain restaurant, loves the food and ambiance and suddenly thinks, “I should own one of these.”

It’s tempting to pick a franchise based on personal experiences or love of the product. But the fact that you’re smitten with the business or what it sells doesn’t mean it fits your lifestyle, financial situation or long-term goals.

Franchise buyers need to spend ample time exploring their options and doing some thoughtful self-exploration before signing on the dotted line. The last thing you want is to buy a fast-food restaurant only to realize you don’t like 80-hour workweeks, chatting up customers or managing 20 people.

Many people buy franchises “thinking about how much money they can make without thinking about lifestyle issues,” says Mark Siebert, president of iFranchise Group, a Homewood, Ill., consultant to franchisers.

Self Exploration

Of course, a franchise’s financial health is an important factor and franchisees must spend ample time investigating a system. But along with that due diligence, they also need to think about their own skills, lifestyle preferences and long-term goals.

This means answering questions like:

• What are my biggest strengths and weaknesses both professionally and personally?
• How much money can I afford to invest in a franchise without risking all my retirement funds?
• How much flexibility do I want in the hours I work? What’s my risk tolerance?
• What tasks will I be happy spending at least 30 hours a week doing? What are my long-term goals?

For instance, many people assume they want a food-based franchise because they ate at one that they really enjoyed. But restaurant franchises often require huge upfront costs, lots of workers and inflexible long hours. Some people thrive in such an environment, but many people want a franchise with more flexibility and fewer employees.

Many people don’t realize the wide variety of franchises out there until they start looking, Mr. Siebert says. Nowadays, there are franchises for just about every industry imaginable with very different business models.

Some allow franchisees to set their own schedules and work from home. Some are far less flexible and require hiring and managing a lot of people; others are geared toward solo entrepreneurs. Some franchises require someone to be good at sales while others might fit less-brazen personalities.

Outside Opinions

Les Jordan, of Webb City, Mo., and his wife, Dian, purchased a Caring Transitions franchise last year. Mr. Jordan, 61, chose the franchise — which helps families sort through belongings and organize estate sales — after looking at dozens of other options.

Mr. Jordan had considered fast-food chains, home-design businesses, and woodworking suppliers among other options. But he ultimately chose Cincinnati-based Caring Transitions because he liked the low start-up costs as well as the ability to run the business from home and to mostly set his own hours. Having spent 25 years working for an architectural and management company, he also felt his previous sales experience would help.

“I didn’t want something where I’d have to come into work and do the same things day in and day out,” Mr. Jordan says. “That’s what I’d done for so much of my career — I wanted something different.”

Conducting such in-depth personal analysis is often easier said than done. People aren’t always the best judges of their own character. So, prospective franchisees should consider seeking some outside help assessing their strengths and weaknesses.

Friends, family members, former colleagues and objective advisers can give prospects some helpful insights on their personalities and strengths.

Getty Images

There also are so-called franchise brokers, professionals who interview prospective franchisees and then provide them with a list of compatible franchises for free. They could help a person clarify personality strengths and goals and provide a greater level of detail about the franchise systems and what franchisees are expected to do.

But there are limitations to using a broker. Many represent only a sliver of all the available franchises, and they get paid a hefty commission from the franchiser when a person buys one of the recommended franchises.

Finding the One

Once a prospective franchisee has come up with a list of criteria, there are some resources to help narrow down the pool of 3,000-plus franchises out there.

The International Franchise Association’s Web site, franchise.org, offers a free, searchable database of more than 1,250 franchise systems. On the home page, scroll over the “Find Your Franchise Here” tab near the top left, and then click on “Search over 1,250 Franchises” underneath it.

Some companies publish franchise directories that offer details about the franchise systems and what franchisees will be expected to do.

Also, Source Book Publications’ franchise directories provide detailed descriptions of the franchise systems and how they operate, including capital requirements, royalties and staffing needs. The publisher’s Bond’s Franchise Guide, 2008 (19th) Edition costs $34.95 online at SourceBookPublications.com.

• Kelly Spors covers small business for The Wall Street Journal. Email: kelly.spors@wsj.com

By ROBERT POWELL

An investment product with an unfamiliar name, no ticker symbol and hard-to-find performance data isn’t likely to be the most popular option in a 401(k) retirement-savings plan.

Related Video

A lot of job-switchers are ignoring what may be one of the best options to get the most out of their retirement: Moving their savings into their new employer’s 401(k). MarketWatch’s Jim Jelter explains the benefits. (Photo: AP)

And that’s frequently the case with “collective investment trusts,” or CITs. But before writing these investments off, consider this: CITs are being added to a growing number of retirement-savings programs—and they could be a good low-cost option for your nest egg.

A collective investment trust is created or administered by a bank or trust company. Like a mutual fund, it assembles assets from a number of sources. For instance, the Manning & Napier Pro-Mix Extended Term CIT, a target-risk trust for investors with a time horizon of seven to 20 years, had 57.3% of its $8.8 billion in assets under management in stocks, 40% in bonds and 2.7% in cash at the end of the third quarter.

There are now more than 1,200 collective trusts, with at least $1.6 trillion in total assets, according to a report by Alexander Camargo, an analyst with Celent, a research and consulting firm in Boston. At least $800 billion of CIT assets are held in defined-contribution plans, up from roughly $730 billion in 2009, Mr. Camargo says, and he expects those assets to continue growing at a rate of about 13% to 18% a year.

Low Profile, Low Fees

At first glance, CITs don’t inspire much confidence. They aren’t traded on exchanges or offered to retail investors. By law, they don’t advertise. And CITs don’t issue formal prospectuses, says Brad Huss, a lawyer specializing in employee benefits with Trucker Huss, a San Francisco-based law firm.

Consumer groups and financial industry representatives often tout how well they’re protecting consumers’ best interests. But sometimes they’re not. MarketWatch’s Jim Jelter discusses five things financial advisers won’t tell you. (Photo: Getty Images)

All of that can make researching these products difficult. But these apparent shortcomings also help explain the trusts’ growing popularity.

To start, CITs are regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency rather than the Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees mutual funds. As such, says Mr. Camargo, CITs have simpler disclosure statements, smaller prospectuses, and lower advertising and marketing costs. Less-stringent regulation translates into lower operating expenses.

That advantage is evident in fees. For example, one large value manager that manages funds for 401(k) plan sponsors charges 0.89% for a mutual fund and as little as 0.3% for assets greater than $140 million in a collective trust, according to Mercer LLC, a New York-based human-resources and financial-services consulting firm.

Another key benefit of CITs is that they can be tailored to suit the demographics of a particular employer’s workforce, experts say. So instead of offering an off-the-shelf target-date mutual fund to workers, plan sponsors can work with banks and trust companies to create a target-date fund that has a specific asset allocation or glide path built around its workforce and employee-benefit package.

Tougher to Track

Of course, CITs have their drawbacks. The fact that CITs don’t have ticker symbols makes it difficult to track one’s portfolio with online services such as Quicken, notes Lori Lucas, an executive vice president at Callan Associates Inc., a San Francisco-based investment consulting firm.

In addition, investors will have a harder time getting information on CITs than on mutual funds, which are listed in newspapers and online, says Laurie Nordquist, executive vice president and director of Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust in Charlotte, N.C.

(Note: Would-be investors aren’t flying completely blind. They typically have access to CIT fact sheets, assembled by research firms such as Morningstar Inc.

and distributed by retirement-plan providers and sponsors. Such fact sheets can help plan participants evaluate collective trusts.)

What’s more, workers can invest in collective trusts only in ERISA-qualified plans, according to Ms. Nordquist. (ERISA stands for Employee Retirement Income Security Act.) That means CITs aren’t available to retail individual retirement accounts, 403(b)s, government-sponsored 457(f) plans or any executive deferred-compensation non-qualified plan.

As such, participants who leave their employer can’t roll their collective trusts over to an IRA. They have to sell the CIT and then roll over cash.

In the main, however, many investment analysts and financial advisers say a CIT’s advantages frequently outweigh the disadvantages. If one is available through your employer, they say, it is worth considering as part of your nest egg.

“Collective trusts provide the overall benefits of a mutual fund—such as professional investment management, a broadly diversified portfolio of holdings, and the like—generally at a much more effective price point,” says Winfield Evens, a partner and director at Aon Hewitt, a human-resources consulting firm based in Lincolnshire, Ill.

Mr. Powell is the editor of Retirement Weekly and a columnist at MarketWatch.com. He can be reached at encore@wsj.com.

A version of this article appeared March 18, 2013, on page R4 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Not Your Normal Nest Egg.

By JOE LIGHT

The unemployment rate for new college graduates has climbed since before the recession, prompting some recent grads to delay looking for a job.

The worst recession in decades—and its subsequent, halting recovery—has particularly punished individuals short on work experience or skills. Since May 2007, the percentage of the population under age 25 who are currently employed has dropped more than seven percentage points to 45.1%, according to the Labor Dept.

The shift is part of a larger transformation in the American work force, where the country’s aging population is leading to a growing number of older workers in jobs or looking for work. With the pace of job openings not keeping up with population growth, that means fewer open positions for younger workers. Indeed, the percentage of the population age 55 and older who are employed has increased more than five percentage points in the last decade, to 37.5%.

To be sure, part of the shift is due to more young workers deciding to stay longer in school, moving on to graduate studies rather than entering the work force.

The jobs picture for recent college graduates, while lackluster over the long term, has shown glimmers of hope recently. Employers plan to hire 19% more new graduates this year than in 2010, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Employers say there’s especiallyhigh demand for graduates with expertise in technology and engineering fields.

But even among college graduates under 25, a growing number are—at least temporarily—opting out of the work force entirely. Among that group, the labor force participation rate, which measures the proportion working or seeking employment fell by three percentage points over the past four years.

That drop in the percentage of young graduates in the labor force actually began near the start of the 2001 recession. Career counselors at colleges say that in the past two years they have seen increasing numbers of graduates opting to travel, volunteer, or get unpaid work experience rather than head straight into a tenuous job market. It isn’t clear, some counselors say, just how long many such students expect this interval between school and a job search to last.

In May, about 6.9% of college graduates aged 16 to 24 were unemployed, according to the Labor Dept., compared with 4% in May 2007.

“There’s a lot of moving in with parents, waiting it out, and thinking about grad school,” says Harvard economist Lawrence Katz. “It’s become more extreme given how this recession has been.”

Anabelle Harari, who majored in international relations at Mount Holyoke and graduated in May, says she applied for five or six jobs between January and March, but hasn’t submitted any applications since. For now, she is living with her mother in Margate, N.J., and making travel plans to see Nepal or Israel.

“I think it’s hard for my mom to accept that I’m not even trying to find a job,” says Ms. Harari, who notes that her mother is otherwise supportive. She intends to travel, take up seasonal jobs, and possibly volunteer for the next two years before looking for a full-time job or applying to grad school.

One of her Mount Holyoke classmates, Adrian Avedisian, 22, is living with her mother in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

“Everyone is talking about how difficult it’s going to be to get a job. If that’s how the competition is, I feel like there’s no use wasting my time,” she says. Eventually, Ms. Avedisian, who majored in Arabic Language and Culture, wants to find a job working for a start-up in the Middle East and hopes to finalize her plans in July. She has informally reached out to some contacts at start-ups, but hasn’t applied to a job since the beginning of May.

Being disconnected from the job market can have long-term implications on young workers’ earnings and psychological well-being, says David Blanchflower, an economist at Dartmouth College.

Last year Mr. Blanchflower conducted a study that found 16- to 25-year-olds who don’t have jobs or aren’t in school are more likely to be anxious, depressed and suicidal than their counterparts who are students or working.

“In recessions,” Mr. Blanchflower said, “everyone moves down the occupational ladder, and young people get pushed out at the bottom.”

By BRETT ARENDS

You would have to be crazy to invest in the Italian stock market, right?

After all, the country is plunged into yet another political crisis. It is struggling through its longest recession since World War II. Italy’s national debts are among the largest in the world, both in absolute terms and in relation to gross domestic product, and bond markets consider the country’s debt to be risky.

The Wall Street Journal

Yet successful investing is often counterintuitive. Research shows that the greatest investment gains over the long term typically accrue to those who buy stocks when they are inexpensive.

And that tends to be at times of financial distress, political uncertainty, or both.

If you have the patience and the appetite for risk, Italian stocks today look like an intriguing investment.

The FTSE MIB index of Italian stocks is down 8% in U.S. dollar terms so far this year, underperforming the 2% rise in the broader European markets, as measured by the Euro Stoxx index, and the 8% rise in the MSCI World index, which tracks global markets.

Italy has largely been left behind by the world-wide rally that began in March 2009. At 15339, the FTSE MIB is barely one third of the peak seen in 2007 and is up only about a fifth from the 2009 lows.

In comparison, the MSCI World index has doubled from its lows, in U.S. dollar terms, and today is about 15% below the 2007 peak.

How cheap is Italy? It trades at less than 11 times forecast per-share earnings for the next 12 months, according to data provider FactSet. That is far below the average of about 15 times seen over the past 25 years. It is also much lower than the world average of 13 times forecast earnings.

What’s more, Italy’s dividend yield, meaning annual dividends divided by the stock price, is above 4%, compared with just 2.7% for the world overall. That is a sign that Italian stocks are inexpensive in relation to company profits, and means investors collect more income from the stocks.

Credit Suisse

recently concluded that Italy was the cheapest market in Europe by a significant margin on a number of measures designed to show long-term value, such as comparing stock prices with companies’ net asset values.

Analysts at SG Securities agree. European strategist Paul Jackson calculated Italy is the cheapest market in a region itself underpriced.

While many experts point to Italy’s problems, some contend that the financial situation isn’t as bad as it appears.

“It’s not going bust, and the economy is going to recover over the summer,” says Holger Schmieding, chief economist for Berenberg Bank, a private bank in Hamburg with about $30 billion under management. “The political situation is a mess, but it is usually a mess, and the country will live with it.” Mr. Schmieding says the banks, despite recent debt losses, are in reasonable shape.

The iShares MSCI Italy Capped Exchange-Traded Fund is the only pure-play Italian fund available to retail investors. It has annual expenses of 0.51%, or $51 for every $10,000 invested, and a dividend yield of 3%. About 28% of the fund is invested in financial stocks, and another 22% in Italy’s most valuable company, oil-and-gas giant Eni.

Leila Heckman, managing director of Roosevelt Investment Group, an investment firm in New York with $4.4 billion under management, likes the fund and holds it in client portfolios. She says Italy looks like a cheap market and over the long run those tend to pay off well. This is the simplest low-cost way to invest, she adds.

U.S. investors also can buy individual Italian stocks on U.S. exchanges, but this is a different proposition. An individual stock’s performance is mainly tied to that of the company and its industry, rather than the national market. Strategists suggest looking for high-quality companies, including multinationals, whose stocks may be trading cheaply simply because they are based in Italy.

Eni is Italy’s version of Exxon Mobil,

and it is far cheaper, trading at 1.2 times net asset value, compared with 2.5 times for the U.S.-based blue chip. That might present an opportunity. If Italian stocks come back into favor, Eni investors could get an uplift.

Edward Smith, global strategist at investment firm Collins Stewart in London, with $15 billion under management, highlights northern Italian firm Danieli & C. Officine Mecchaniche, which makes equipment for steel mills. Mr. Smith says the company’s balance sheet is rock solid, most of its sales are outside Italy, and the stock trades at less than nine times forecast per-share earnings.

“They’ve been unfairly tarnished with the Italian equity-risk premium,” he says.

Still, funds offer the simplest way to invest—and the latest political developments in Rome suggest the situation over there is complicated enough.

Write to Brett Arends at brett.arends@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared March 30, 2013, on page B6 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Why Italy Looks Cheap.

By TOM HERMAN

Q: How high does your income have to be to get hit by the new investment-income tax?

—
C.F., Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.

A: Our reader is asking about a surtax of 3.8 percentage points on net investment income. This new tax, enacted in 2010 to help pay for sweeping health-care changes, became effective this year. (It doesn’t affect tax returns for the 2012 tax year.)

According to the Internal Revenue Service, individuals will owe the tax if they have net investment income and also have “modified adjusted gross income” above a certain threshold. The threshold is $250,000 for married couples filing jointly, $200,000 for most singles and $125,000 for married individuals filing separately.

Net investment income includes items such as interest, dividends, capital gains, and rental and royalty income. Tax-exempt interest income isn’t considered part of net investment income. Here are two IRS examples of how to calculate it:

• A single taxpayer has wages in 2013 of $180,000 and $15,000 of dividends and capital gains. Total modified adjusted gross income: $195,000. Since that’s less than the $200,000 threshold, the surtax won’t apply.

• A single filer has $180,000 of wages and $90,000 from a passive partnership interest. Total modified adjusted gross income: $270,000. That exceeds the threshold for single taxpayers by $70,000. The taxpayer’s net investment income is $90,000. The IRS says the tax is “based on the lesser of $70,000 (the amount that taxpayer’s modified adjusted gross income exceeds the $200,000 threshold) or $90,000 (the taxpayer’s net investment income).” So the taxpayer owes a net investment tax of $2,660—3.8% of $70,000.

For more details, go to the IRS website and search for “Net Investment Income Tax FAQs.”

Write to Tom Herman at tom.herman@wsj.com

—Send your questions to us at askdowjones.sunday03@wsj.com and include your name, address and telephone number. Questions may be edited; we regret that we cannot answer every letter.

By STEPHEN MILLER

Art Bartlett wasn’t the first to apply to home sales a franchise model more often associated with selling hamburgers, but he was the most successful.

As co-founder of Century 21 Real Estate Corp., Mr. Bartlett, who died Dec. 31 at age 76, sought to make his company “the McDonald’s of real estate.”

Los Angeles Times

Art Bartlett, who co-founded real-estate company Century 21.

By 1979, when Mr. Bartlett sold his interest in the company, Century 21 had grown to more than 7,000 offices in 50 states and Canada. Today the company’s 120,000 gold-jacketed staff sell homes in 67 countries.

“His concept was imitated by everybody, and it became spectacular,” says Dave Liniger, chairman of RE/Max International Inc., another big real-estate franchisor.

The son of a Glens Falls, N.Y., truck driver, Mr. Bartlett moved to Long Beach, Calif., in the 1940s to care for a sick relative. After working as a salesman for Campbell Soup Co., he took up real estate. He founded his own agency, then formed Comps Inc., an Orange, Calif.-based firm that was one of the earliest to use computers to track comparable home sales.

In 1971, he teamed with a former employee, Marsh Fisher, to form Century 21. Others had tried real-estate sales franchising, including Red Carpet Corp., another California-based company founded in 1966. But Century 21 became franchising on steroids, growing to 2,600 offices within five years of its founding.

Rather than build up a network from scratch, Mr. Bartlett signed up thousands of independent real-estate brokers across the nation in a process that came to be known as “conversion franchising.” To spur growth, he sold regional licenses, and the licensees sold individual franchises. At one point in the mid-1970s, Century 21 was opening over 100 new offices per month.

In exchange for an annual fee and a percentage of sales, Century 21 offered its brokers a range of services from training to purchasing, a referral network, and national advertising, an innovation in residential real estate.

“You can’t overstate the challenge of getting this off the ground,” says Matt Shay, president of the International Franchise Association in Washington. “We’ve lost a true pioneer. He was up there with Ray Kroc of McDonald’s and Kemmons Wilson of Holiday Inn.”

Century 21 went public in 1978, then was acquired by Trans World Corp. in 1979 in a stock and cash deal valued at $89 million. Mr. Bartlett sold his shares and retired, but found retirement uncomfortable.

“When you’re on a fast track of building a company you can’t just turn it off and slow down,” Mr. Bartlett told a reporter in 1982. He tried to apply his franchising expertise at Mr. Build, a home-remodeling chain he hoped to take national. But Mr. Build stalled, and Mr. Bartlett turned to real-estate investments.

Mr. Bartlett lived in an exclusive section of Orange County, then built what his family calls his “dream home” overlooking San Diego Bay. He collected classic cars, from Packards and Fords of the 1930s to Corvettes and Thunderbirds of the 1950s.

Write to Stephen Miller at stephen.miller@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A4

By WILL LYONS

WITH MORE THAN 40 distilleries dotted around its valleys, Scotland’s Speyside region is a whisky lover’s paradise—home to some of the most famous names in Scotch whisky, such as The Glenlivet, Maccallan, Glenfiddich, Glenrothes and Glenfarclas. Aficionados have long made pilgrimages to this corner of northeast Scotland for a taste of these sweet, light, amber whiskies.

But there is more to the region than just copper stills and the water of life. With a swathe of golf courses, wild, sandy beaches, spectacular scenery, world-class fly-fishing and historic monuments, it’s an ideal escape from the demands of city life.

Running through the region is the River Spey, famous for salmon fishing. And by following its banks—by car and on foot—visitors can reel in the wild beauty of an area squared by the coastal seaboard of the Moray Firth to the north and the Cairngorm Mountains to the south. Here’s our guide to savoring a long weekend in the Highlands, with a dram in hand.

FRIDAY

7 p.m. Land at Inverness Airport. Renting a car is by far the best way to navigate the back roads of whisky’s Golden Triangle. Despite being flanked by mountains on one side and the coast on the other, the area is fertile and surprisingly flat—think fields of barley rather than shadowy glens. If you are traveling in spring or summer, don’t worry about getting there in the evening—the sun doesn’t set until after 10 p.m.

The Mash Tun

The Mash Tun and its Whisky Bar, where you can try a whisky from your birth year.

7:30 p.m. Drive 18 kilometers east along the A96 to the coastal village of Nairn. This Victorian spa town was a favorite vacation spot of Charlie Chaplin and is a good place to drink in Scotland’s clean air, wilderness and unpolluted northern light. You won’t have time to enjoy a round of golf at the town’s Nairn Golf Club (
nairngolfclub.co.uk
) but be sure to fit in a stroll along the sandy dunes of its East Beach before heading south to Grantown-on-Spey, then up the A95 to Aberlour.

9 p.m. There are a few grand Victorian hotels in Speyside, but for the whisky-lover there is no better place to stay than in one of the five well-appointed rooms above theMash Tun whisky bar in Aberlour (double room £113 per night, 8 Broomfield Square, mashtun-aberlour.com). With views over the Spey, this former station bar is a cozy place to hole up for the weekend. Call ahead and arrange for a light supper of soup and a baguette to be served in the bar when you arrive

10:30 p.m. Enjoy a night cap in the Whisky Bar. Try a whisky from your birth year; the bar has more than 46 single-cask whiskies from Glenfarclas—one for every year between 1952 and 1997.

SATURDAY

9:30 a.m. After a hearty Scottish breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, head south on the A95 for the picturesque 20-minute journey to the Glenlivet Distillery (
theglenlivet.com
). Founded by George Smith in 1824 at Upper Drummin Farm, it now produces one of the best-selling malt whiskies in the U.S. Park behind the distillery and put on your walking boots.

10 a.m. Take a stroll along the George Smith Smugglers Trail and let the beauty of Speyside open up before you. The trail is a gentle, signposted 6-kilometer route that runs from the back of the distillery and follows the River Livet past the former home of Smith to the remains of Drumin Castle, where you can take in the view from this ancient spot.

1 p.m. Grab a quick lunch in the distillery’s coffee shop and have a browse around the shop before you join the tour of your choice.

1:30 p.m. The distillery offers a free tour that lasts around 45 minutes—no need to book—and includes a visit to the warehouse and the mash tuns, where the whisky is produced and distilled, and a free dram at the end. Drivers can opt for a miniature instead. Aficionados may wish to take the Glenlivet Spirit of the Malt Tour (£30 per person), an in-depth, three-hour experience that includes a tutored tasting of more than seven different variations of The Glenlivet, as well as a dram poured straight from the cask in the warehouse. If you go for this option, be sure to choose a designated driver in advance.

3 p.m. Head back up the Spey to Craigellachie, the village where the Spey and Fiddich rivers meet. Stop off at Craigellachie Bridge for a breathtaking view of the Spey. Just a short drive up the hill is the Macallan distillery
(themacallan.com
). Rich, sherried and honeyed, The Macallan is one of the world’s most popular whiskies. The distillery runs a series of small tours, the last of which is at 3 p.m. These range from £10 to £20 and booking is advised. Naturally, they end with a warming dram or two.

If two distilleries in one day feels like too much, head down the hill to Victoria Street to the Craigellachie Hotel for afternoon tea (£8.95, thecraigellachiehotel.com), served in their drawing room overlooking the Spey. Afterward, if you still have time to spare, take the five-minute drive to the Speyside Cooperage on the A941 to learn about the wooden casks that are used to store whisky.

5 p.m. Drive back to Aberlour and leave the car at the Mash Tun. Then enjoy the early-evening light by taking a 45-minute stroll up the banks of the Spey, returning to Craigellachie. By this time you will have earned your supper.

6:30 p.m. Start your evening with a visit to the Craigellachie Hotel’s famous Whisky Quaich bar, home to more than 750 whiskies. Ask the barman to pour you something rare.

7:30 p.m. Cross the road to the Highlander Inn (
whiskyinn.com
). Popular with whisky writers and local distillers, its bar will be busy on a Saturday night. Soak up the local atmosphere and enjoy an unpretentious supper of Scotland’s most famous dish: haggis, neeps and tatties, a savory pudding of sheep’s heart, liver and lungs, with potatoes and turnips, served with a drizzle of creamy sauce.

10:30 p.m. Take a five-minute taxi ride back to the Mash Tun, stopping off in the bar for a quick nightcap before the fresh air and whisky send you into a deep sleep.

SUNDAY

10 a.m. Allow yourself a gentle start after yesterday’s excesses. After savoring a cooked breakfast at the Mash Tun, enjoy a stroll around the village. Aberlour is home to Walker’s shortbread, and their shop on the high street is a great place to stock up on Speyside’s other famous export.

Scottish Viewpoint

A cooper at the Speyside Cooperage

11 a.m. Hop in the car and drive north along the A941 to the medieval city of Elgin, with its magnificent ruined cathedral. Make sure to bring your wallet as our destination is cashmere specialists Johnstons of Elgin. Here you can while away a few hours trying on cashmere knitwear from v-necks to luxury hot-water-bottle covers before enjoying a light lunch in their cafe. After lunch, head into town and visit Gordon & Macphail’s famous whisky shop (58 South St.; gordonandmacphail.com
). As well as more than 1,000 whiskies, and 800 wines, it stocks local cheeses and hams, and always has a selection of malt whiskies on hand to taste.

2 p.m. Head west out of Elgin to the Benromach Distillery. Mothballed in the early 1980s, the distillery was bought by Gordon & Macphail in 1994. After a refurbishment, the result is a small, boutique distillery that makes for an interesting contrast to the scale of Glenlivet. In the summer months, the distillery offers tours and daily tastings of its smooth, medium-bodied floral whisky.

4 p.m. Continuing west past Nairn, on the banks of the Moray Firth stands Fort George, an impressive example of 18th-century military engineering. This enormous garrison, still a working army barracks but open to visitors, was built by King George II to control uprisings in the Highlands in the aftermath of the 1746 Battle of Culloden. Take a stroll around its boundary walls and breathe in a bit of history.

7 p.m. Return to Aberlour and the Mash Tun for a hearty dinner of local fare, including roast salmon or Aberdeen Angus sirloin steak.

MONDAY

10 a.m. After breakfasting and checking out of the Mash Tun, it’s a short drive to one of the most interesting distillery tours of the weekend. Aberlour Distillery sits in a spectacular glen where the rivers Lour and Spey meet. This small, picturesque distillery offers a series of tours, including the Founder’s Tour (£30 per person; book in advance). This includes a tutored tasting of five Aberlour whiskies paired with locally produced chocolate and the opportunity to hand-fill your very own bottle of cask-strength whisky (£65).

1 p.m. If you fancy ending the weekend with some fine dining, take a 15-minute drive over to Dufftown to La Faisanderie (2 Balvenie St.; lafaisanderie.co.uk
), where chef Eric Obry is earning himself a reputation for fine French cooking with local ingredients.

4 p.m. Take a stroll around the wide streets of Dufftown before popping into the Malt Barn Bar at the Glenfiddich distillery for one final dram. Then it’s back to the airport—allow an hour and 15 minutes for the drive—and home, hopefully with some liquid souvenirs in hand.

—Email Will at william.lyons@wsj.com or follow him on Twitter: @Will_Lyons