Bain Capital plays talent card to replace Envestnet's take-private CFO Josh Warren • Vanguard nabs new exec to figure out alts, it seems • Robinhood opens football bets, then sues • Advisor CRM's 'AI' catch-up • SEC delays Trump ETF date • ETFs explode in number

Envestnet has appointed its second chief financial officer (CFO) in two years, swapping out Joshua Warren with a former healthcare exec., John Hofmann, effective Sept. 1.

Most recently, Hofmann spent just under three years as CFO of Bain Capital-backed Athenahealth in Texas.  

Envestnet went private in July 2024, in a $4.5 billion deal; Bain Capital became its majority shareholder. See: Envestnet lands $4.5-billion deal to go private.

Envestnet has not publicly disclosed the reason for Warren's departure but said he did a great job. Warren was more of an investing hire. He came from BlackRock and served several years on iCapital's board.

“Since joining in 2023, Josh has strengthened our financial discipline, guided us through a significant period of transition—including the Bain Capital take-private transaction—and led a successful debt repricing,” the company said.  

He replaced long-standing 2008-appointed CFO, Pete D'Arrigo, in Sept., 2023. See: Joshua Warren, replaces 'brother' Pete D'Arrigo at CFO.

Vanguard makes big alts hire, but says nothing about it 

The Vanguard Group has appointed a new head of private markets strategy, three months after signing a deal to sell Blackstone and Carlyle Group alternative investments (alts) to retail investors. See: Vanguard and Blackstone disclose joint 'initiative' to bring alts to masses.

The giant Malvern, Pa. asset manager just named former Nuveen global client and business development head, Bill Stout, to the post, although it has yet to comment on his appointment.

Vanguard's 2024-appointed CEO, Salim Ramji, is pushing hard to transform the company by increasing the breadth of its product offerings, potentially including alts.

Still, Ramji is openly ambivalent about the category and says it could take a long, long time to really work for retail investors.

“I think it’s going to be some time, like a long time, longer than most people expect before this really goes mainstream in a big way,” he told Morningstar. “And I think a lot of it is not just the complexity and the fees, but just the complexity of consuming the product.”

Prior to joining Vanguard, Stout spent just under two years in his most recent global business development role at Nuveen, and a further seven years as head of Nuveen's alts business development, according to his LinkedIn profile. Bloomberg first reported the news.

Robinhood opens football bets, then sues in Nevada

Robinhood is tripling-down on its bid to bring betting to the masses through its investment app. 

The Palo Alto, Calif., discount brokerage added pro and college football ‘prediction markets’ to its trading application on Aug. 19. On the same day, it sued the Nevada Gaming Commission to block allegedly threatened enforcement action against its service. See: Robinhood pushes back against CFTC over prediction markets.

Also, a fledgling RIA custodian, Robinhood took legal action to protect itself from "substantial ongoing economic and reputational harms," it states in a court filing.

The company has certainly been on the receiving end of substantial regulatory scrutiny and push-back from private interests, including a Native American First Nations group, which represents three federally recognized tribes, the Blue Lake Rancheria, the Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians, and the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi. 

The tribes reserve the right to control gambling on their reservations and are suing Robinhood to block its sports betting operations on their tribal lands. 

The moves come following the February launch of Robinhood's "prediction markets" hub, which it first trialed in late 2024. See: Robinhood's surefire 'RIA' play -- custody and robo-advice -- just got shakier as its 'betting' ambitions go full bore.

Betting – football prediction markets in particular – is a "no-brainer" service to run, says JB MacKenzie, Robinhood vice president and general manager of futures and international business, in a release.

ETF glut means retail vertigo, but good news for RIAs

The paradox of choice used to befuddle individual investors in stocks, but now it's a problem for exchange-traded fund (ETF) investors, too.

There are now more ETFs, 4,300, than stocks that aren't ETFs, 4,200. As recently as 2020, individual stocks were still nearly twice as numerous.

“Choice is great until it becomes a burden,” Douglas Boneparth told Bloomberg, Aug. 25. He's president of New York City RIA Bone Fide Wealth, which manages $115 million in assets.

Increasingly a means of packaging investment strategies as much as a basket of stocks, ETFs are launching at breakneck speed. See: RIAs are starting to embrace 'model' portfolios.

Over 640 have already been launched this year, at a rate of four a day, Morningstar reports. See: ETF assets hit record with RIAs a clear catalyst.

Yet, it's good news for RIAs, Cerulli Senior Director of Advice Relationships, Scott Smith, told Bloomberg.

"People are turning to advice, because they don't even know where to start," he said.

Advisor CRM plays 'AI' catch-up

Advisor CRM just added a store-bought language model, or 'AI' to keep up with the Salesforce and Wealthbox Joneses. See: John Rourke is combining $200 million and artificial intelligence to exploit Salesforce's supposed Achilles' heel.

The Nashville, Tenn., CRM software shop now lets RIAs use a customized generic AI to write and schedule emails, LinkedIn posts, and other social media. 

It can also reorganize RIA CRM data into segments, separating high-value clients and new clients into discrete categories, according to the firm. See: RIA CRM startup arrives -- it's free, AI-powered and unfettered by dubious features.

"The marketing content it generates feels authentic, personal, and true," says managing partner, Ryan Borer, in a release.

Yet even some 'AI' experts doubt a chatbot can mimic the ephemeral qualities of a human soul.

Most AI sounds "like it was assembled by a committee of very polite robots who learned English exclusively from LinkedIn thought leadership posts," says Adnan Masood, a former Microsoft director, now chief architect for AI and machine learning at technology giant UST, in a Medium article.

Advisor CRM's ‘AI’ depends on the algorithms of an undisclosed and unnamed number of the current ‘AI’ market-leaders.

SEC delays Trump ETF date

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) just delayed its decision on whether to approve Trump Media's Truth Social Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF – kicking its ruling on the controversial and potentially highly conflicted fund to Oct. 8.

President Trump has already earned a tidy sum, estimated in the billions of dollars, following his relatively recent crypto conversion. But his role as president presents several potential conflicts with his private business interests – an issue the SEC must sort out. 

Indeed, in January, for instance, Trump Media signed a custody deal with Charles Schwab Corp. for its planned, but as-yet-unannounced, brokerage platform, “TruthFi.” 

Schwab founder Charles "Chuck" Schwab has been a substantial past donor to Trump's presidential campaign. See: Charles Schwab Corp. ties brand to ‘Trump’.

The company shuttered its Political Action Committee (PAC) after the Jan. 6, 2020 attack on the U.S. Capitol, but individual Schwab staffers still contributed to his campaign in the 2024 presidential election. 

Trump Media SPACs its way to tiny crypto IPO

Trump Media also just signed a deal to go public, via the special purposes acquisition vehicle (SPAC) backdoor, launching a digital assets treasury company in partnership with crypto.com.

The combined company, Trump Media Group CRO Strategy, will go public by merging with blank-check SPAC shop, Yorkville Acquisition Corp., taking up the ticker MCGA, according to an Aug. 26 SEC filing.

It will invest in the little-known cryptocurrency “Cronos,” which will mirror Strategy Founder and Executive Chair Michael Saylor's move to turn his company into a Bitcoin treasury fund.

Initially, the new company will have around $1.7 billion of assets, including $1.25 billion of Cronos coins, and $200 million in cash, Bloomberg reports.

Ramaswamy's merger dream nears finish

Michael Saylor has another imitator among politically connected hangers-on surrounding President Donald Trump.

Former Republican presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy, a Trump acolyte, is most-of-the-way through a Bitcoin treasury pivot, despite the early success of his firm, Strive Asset Management, as an “anti-ESG” asset manager. See: Vivek Ramaswamy jumps on the next new thing, a Bitcoin treasury company with a 'mad science' twist.

Led by CEO Matt Cole, who replaced Ramaswamy so that he could run for president in 2024, Strive is now closing in on completing its reverse-merger with Asset Entities (ASST), which is central to the firm's pivot.

Indeed, following a declaration by the SEC that ASST's S-4 statement passed muster, the only hurdle remaining to the merger is a shareholder vote, planned for Sept. 9.

The closure of the deal will give Strive access to a war-chest of up-to $1.5 billion that it largely intends to spend on Bitcoin. See: Vivek Ramaswamy's 'pure insanity' plan achieves liftoff.

* President Trump's crypto earnings include a reported $390 million through World Liberty Financial, a portion of that, around $315 million in revenues, was produced by his $TRUMP “memecoin.” Another $6.6 million came from “NFT” collections, and around $430 million came from appreciation on personal crypto holdings, according to a recent TradingView report.