Articles published 11/2013
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How interest rates have rolled since the first Thanksgiving and why the 'new normal' under Yellen seems destined to last
The Pilgrims probably paid 12-18% to finance their new lives (lucky for us they took the risk)
November 28, 2013 at 4:53 AM
Where Scott Leonard's life stands after serving his RIA clients mostly from sea for 2 1/2 years, what cut his trip short and what was most unexpected
The odyssey took a $200-million-in-AUM toll in addition to a partner split and Leonard, 45, still faces, psychologically, the task of building a business from 'scratch'
November 27, 2013 at 6:09 AM
Envestnet struts upmarket stuff by signing a $1.5-billion, a $3.3-billion, a $2.3-billion and a $4-billion RIA to big technology deals
Post-Tamarac acquisition and bolstering, the Chicago-based king of SMAs to IBDs poached accounts from the likes of The Colony Group, Henssler Financial, Laird Norton, RegentAtlantic from legacy RIA providers
November 25, 2013 at 9:13 PM
Two 'super RIAs' -- Aspiriant and Salient -- hire risk officers in a sign of what clients value post-2008-'09, post-Madoff
In the post-Madoff era, explicit downside is becoming more important -- and lets Aspiriant justify its $7,500 planning fee better
November 24, 2013 at 8:45 PM
Betterment's Jon Stein talks human-RIA coopetition but breathes fire about fellow online RIAs
The 34 year-old CEO sees 300-fold growth to $100 billion, partially fueled by classic RIAs, and not much competition from Wealthfront and the like
November 22, 2013 at 6:29 PM
Scott Leonard's 2-1/2-year boat odyssey around the world is followed by split with his partner
Christopher Van Slyke realized Trovena was presented with fast-arising opportunities he couldn't pursue with Leonard at sea
November 22, 2013 at 5:47 PM
Salesforce rolls out giant product, pricing changes -- a virtual doubling for the direct-sold version that could price out some mainstream RIA practices
As part of a big revamping, Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff will make CRM work on mobile but it may now cost twice as much for the comparable direct-sold product
November 21, 2013 at 3:38 AM
Why a disconnect between reporting software and advisors to UHNW assets persists -- and what makes the problem so thorny
Many big-time wealth managers are plagued by their own foibles, their clients' peculiar challenges and third-parties who haven't quite gotten a handle on the challenges
November 19, 2013 at 8:05 PM
RIA custodians charge steep new ETF-related fees that can range into the tens of thousands of dollars for big trades and advisors are working to deal with them
Schwab, Fido, TD and Pershing are all in on these 'trade-away' fees and claim they simply are defraying costs of manual labor -- but RIAs aren't so sure
November 18, 2013 at 10:35 PM
Long the underdogs, female advisors are actually winning in two important categories, a study based on $3.5 trillion of AUM shows
Trust is where women -- especially with their own gender -- gain the upper hand, the PriceMetrix study concludes
November 18, 2013 at 1:00 PM
A $1.2-billion RIA is born on the Rt. 128 altar as two $600-million-AUM firms -- one in hyper-growth mode by Fidelity referrals -- get hitched
Spawned from an away breakfast, the deal of Argent Wealth Management and Pillar Financial Advisors financed a succession, forestalled death on the vine and set the stage for accelerated growth
November 15, 2013 at 8:25 PM
Alleging gambling habits, SEC concerns and steady AUM declines, The Mutual Fund Store is offering $5.5 million to Jeff Roper to sell and walk away
What Adam Bold wants, he says, is to force a settlement to keep the reputational fire from spreading out of control
November 14, 2013 at 8:39 PM
Schwab IMPACT 2013 is another great bash but picketers and Fidelity siphoned off some precious RIA attention
Attendees were greeted by disgruntled ex-Schwab advisors chanting 'Find out how Schwab terminates' and Fidelity's RIA campaign jumped out at you on every sidewalk
November 14, 2013 at 6:32 AM
Dynasty Financial leads a second $1 billion-range team -- now Fidelity RIA -- out of Wall Street in as many weeks
Fusion Family Wealth LLC presumed the economics of buying top research wasn't there -- but was shown otherwise
November 13, 2013 at 7:07 PM
After starring in New Yorker article, Mary Jo White holds SIFMA event spellbound and 'no-admit, no-deny' is still in play
The muscular prosecutor of security fraud and terrorism cases delivered roses -- and maybe some thorns
November 13, 2013 at 5:03 PM
The 8 things I learned about Lloyd Blankfein at the SIFMA confab when he was grilled by Politico
The Goldman Sachs chief used artifice to boost himself and his company and stayed appealingly accessible all the while
November 13, 2013 at 6:50 AM
Schwab unveils 'Project PM' at IMPACT -- a 'new vision' for using the company's data to fuel PortfolioCenter
The 'next-generation portfolio management system' takes data cleanliness into a godliness realm but competitors and observers offer sharp criticism of the plan -- and its mushy deadline for completion
November 12, 2013 at 5:10 AM
Part II: RIA custodians' answer to challenges to their monolithic control: We still have big-time scale advantages
Roll-ups and other mezzanine firms are squeezing RIA custody margins as a value proposition but the big-brand custodians -- and some new ones -- are liking the cards they have to play
November 11, 2013 at 6:53 AM
10 questions for RIAs to ask Neesha Hathi, Bernie Clark and Walt Bettinger at Schwab IMPACT 2013 in DC
Speeches by outside experts seem less important when Schwab itself, as Mother Ship, is in such a state of flux as it rushes to win HNW investors for its own RIA account
November 9, 2013 at 12:01 PM
As mutual fund wholesaler economics get squeezed, mutual fund CMOs find best new friend -- online advertising
Web banners, other digitial media, are proving cheaper, more targeted, more accountable and more digitized making them good substitutes for wholesalers to smaller accounts
November 8, 2013 at 8:55 PM
The top 10 financial mistakes women make
A wife needs to be sure not to get talked past in a husband-wife sit-down with a financial advisor
November 8, 2013 at 6:43 AM
Joel Bruckenstein convenes a wholesale version of T3 for IBD execs who choose software for thousands of reps
In his usual no-frills style, the technology guru brought together 200 broker-dealers and tech execs where airplanes thunder in Chicago
November 7, 2013 at 7:02 PM
'AssetMark' rides again as a $20-billion TAMP with a receding Genworth hangover
Private-equity owners take two months to ditch the 'Genworth Financial Wealth Management' moniker and hope to find the old spark
November 7, 2013 at 5:57 PM
How an LPL-owned 401(k) afterthought zoomed from $6.5 billion to $10 billion with help from reps -- and thinking big
The former NRP duo demurred overtures three years ago from wirehouses and big competitors and now counts Qualcomm, Petco and In-N-Out burger as clients
November 7, 2013 at 5:53 PM
Schwab drops pretense: $2-million clients its staple branch diet in bid for fresh $2 trillion
The San Francisco-based broker has named its composite perfect ideal client 'Tobin' -- representing a graying, masculine entreprenuer
November 5, 2013 at 6:07 AM
The Mutual Fund Store sues its own mega-franchisee to force sale of three stores
Franchisee Jeff Roper says he's good on the price and terms but still not comfortable about the 'hundreds of pages' accompanying the term sheet
November 5, 2013 at 12:14 AM
Pershing, Dynasty and Envestnet gang-tackle Credit Suisse and jolt loose $1 billion duo
Hal Lambert and Jeff Wildin held their breakaway fire for several years until they could get all the capabilities -- and keep 100% ownership
November 4, 2013 at 2:56 PM
What I experienced as a passenger in LAX when the bullets started to fly
The reality sunk in more as I stood with a TSA agent with blood on his ankle
November 2, 2013 at 7:01 AM
RIABiz launches its redesigned 'responsive' website
After our Terence Hong dismissed the notion of an RIABiz app as so 2012, we go with a go-anywhere technology
November 1, 2013 at 7:05 PM
Part I: Is the era of the monolithic RIA custodian coming to an end?
RIAs, small custodians, co-ops, study groups, roll-ups, TAMPs, compliance shops, OSJ and IBDs are all chipping away at much of what fit under the roofs of Schwab, Fidelity, TD and Pershing
November 1, 2013 at 4:51 PM
Fidelity teams with Goldman Sachs as part of big push into alternative investments on behalf of RIAs
The Boston giant's resolute move is a 'blue-ocean' strategy that may give it an edge with advisors looking for a one-stop, one-statement approach to AI management