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RIABiz

Articles published 2/2014


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Steve Anderson: We made the decision and notified these clients that we're going to resign our services. I personally made the call and explained our thinking.

Schwab shoos $25 billion of client assets out the door as it calls the bluff of employers with lopsided 401(k) contracts

The San Francisco giant is trading recordkeeper revenue for the prospect of wielding its mighty brand directly at plan participants

February 28, 2014 at 8:49 PM

Justin Richter: I wanted to avoid the tortured stares of my older colleagues, who went into investment banking and sold their souls.

A 32-year-old Kansas advisor -- at all upheaval costs -- followed his mentor to Mariner Wealth Advisors

Losing clients and leaving money on the table are risks that more young advisors are willing to take, especially with social media as a viable workaround to the non-solicitation straitjacket

February 27, 2014 at 6:21 PM

David Welling: The large firms are starting to outsource. I feel like the momentum is building. We're in a great spot.

Black Diamond blows the lid off asset growth in Dave Welling's first year in charge

Assets jumped about 65% and the former Schwabbie says that growth is accelerating

February 26, 2014 at 8:00 AM

Brodie Cobb: The culmination was just the unlucky perfect storm.

How the founder, CEO of a $4-billion RIA survived a brutal bike accident and kept his firm rolling

First Brodie Cobb needed a saw to reset bones, now he's sawing apart silos to make Presidio Group function as a unified team

February 25, 2014 at 4:33 AM

Alois Pirker: Innovation is now more of a visionary thing, and an appetite thing, rather than about the monetary angle.

The 6 biggest trends affecting the RIA business

Alois Pirker, Mike Durbin and Meredith Rice help RIABiz paint the Big Picture for private wealth management in the U.S. and beyond

February 24, 2014 at 5:35 AM

Erik Strid will head the new company and execute under a new brand and plan after what he calls a decade of pseudo independence.

Schwab wins $350-million Philly RIA from Wells Fargo Profit-Formula program with Dynasty Financial's help

The Main Line Strids set the stage for a succession plan and a new round of growth from a King of Prussia perch

February 20, 2014 at 8:02 PM

Al Berkeley: I definitely would not have demanded payment if he had not told me someone else had [filed a demand].

Under the bankruptcy gun, Invest N Retire will sell its patented 401(k) technology to the highest bidder

The firm's patented technology received a surge of interest after Schwab pulled the trigger on a plan utilizing ETFs, Darwin Abrahamson says

February 20, 2014 at 3:41 AM

Dan Arnold: The advisor today spends roughly 35% to 40% of their time on prospecting for acquiring new assets or working with existing clients.

LPL gets the question from Wall Street analyst: How much more can you squeeze from your financial advisors?

The broker-dealer's CFO pointed to a 65% chunk of time not used to prospect or service clients

February 18, 2014 at 9:49 PM

Steve Anderson: None of the consultants are utilizing our business model.

Schwab 'fesses up to Wall Street just how hard winning plan sponsors to its 401(k) ETF platform will be

Convincing plan sponsors and pension consultants to join a ETF paradigm shift to ETFs is a big ask, its executives tell Wall Street

February 18, 2014 at 4:11 PM

David Givner: They're playing catch-up on an investing challenge so widely known and monumental that it manages to be both familiar and shocking.

How to gird clients for the approaching $500K tsunami of college costs without killing their retirement dreams

529 college savings plans are still on the table as well as alternative strategies for those who have made ill-timed, post-crash retreats from investments

February 17, 2014 at 7:49 AM

Neal Simon: We decided to put our money where our mouth was and we hired a full-time [recruitment] person.

This MBA chose an RIA, now with $1.4 billion AUM, but as a business model, not as professional choice per se

Neal Simon says that -- Ric Edelman aside -- nobody is plotting expansion like him

February 14, 2014 at 5:26 PM

Abby Salemeh: There is a 35% increase in click-through rates for websites and bloggers who have a professional headshot on their sites.

The one act of image-ination RIA's must undertake before debuting on social media

When clients Google you, there had better be a photo of you -- and there's a way to think about what represents a good one

February 14, 2014 at 6:45 AM

Greg Friedman and Neesha Hathi may symbolize how companies like his Junxure and her Schwab are getting close, but not too close.

How big companies stampeded to T3 with big bucks and how it affects the once maverick RIA software show

Broker-dealers, custodians, Salesforce and TAMPs are paid more and played more in Anaheim

February 13, 2014 at 5:49 PM

Bernie Clark: Fidelity is half our size and TD is half their size and Pershing is half their size ... It's a long ladder.

Bernie Clark discloses that Schwab Advisor Services hit $1 trillion of assets -- and why the order for commemorative T-shirts is still on hold

The RIA custody leader may find it easier to promote its size as an advantage with a nice round nine-zero number

February 12, 2014 at 10:07 PM

John Rourke: I've never seen a more wide-open industry.

VC-backed RIA CRM firm bursts onto the T3 scene looking to knock off Redtail, Salesforce etc.

Gotham Tech Labs seeks to blur the line between CRM and social media -- for a bargain

February 12, 2014 at 7:25 AM

Tom Bradley, seen here snapping a selfie at TD's national conference Orlando: I'm incredibly proud of these numbers.

Tom Bradley pollinates TD Ameritrade branches and RIAs get sweet referrals in return

Bradley is teaching retail advisors to spend more time with clients -- and local RIAs

February 11, 2014 at 8:30 PM

Marty Bicknell: Sales in the wealth division is hand to hand combat, sometimes in the asset manager world, reputation and being on the right platforms drive business on their own.

The explosive growth to $20 billion AUM of Marty Bicknell's second roll-up-like venture, Montage Investments, and where his $8 billion wealth manager fits in

With admirers saying he takes a page from Warren Buffett, the Mariner Wealth CEO 's side bet on disenfranchised, unappreciated A-grade money managers

February 10, 2014 at 5:23 AM

Clayton Hartman (left) with Tim Kneen: We thought UBS was transitioning to a different kind of wirehouse.

How heavy the lifting was to get a $1-billion wirehouse team to independence in 2014 after a de facto false start in 2007

Kneen and Clayton were still on Windows 2003 version at UBS, a metaphor for why they have moved to Focus Financial and Tamarac software

February 7, 2014 at 6:20 PM

Tom Nally: You've got to build a good team and it's not a one-man show.

What two things Tom Nally says 'no' to in managing his $270-billion RIA empire

The TD Ameritrade chief of RIA custody sees no reason to handle advisor commission business or serve roll-ups geared to hybrids

February 6, 2014 at 5:10 AM

Trey Tune: It's the right place to build a business in the private client space.

How an Alex. Brown spin-off grew to be a $46 billion RIA and how a Brown Brothers breakaway fits in to its plan for accelerated growth

The Baltimore-based firm, Brown Advisory, will invade Bank of America's hometown with an up-to-date investing approach and Old Money flavor

February 5, 2014 at 2:51 PM

Christine Gaze developed her practice-management chops at Morgan Stanley Private Bank.

Christine Gaze exits TD Ameritrade

The ex-Morgan Stanley Private Bank exec was brought in to bring practice management and technology together under Zohar Swaine, who has since departed

February 4, 2014 at 7:56 PM

Nicholas Schorsch: We don't want more product sales.

Nicholas Schorsch explains why buying Cetera makes him a white-hat magnate in a black-hat world

The RCS chairman says the whole purpose of buying IBDs is to diversify away from product sales

February 4, 2014 at 3:00 PM

Mitt Romney: It's not just America. There needs to be a global understanding and a real global effort.

At TD event Mitt Romney ressurrects his Massachusetts stance on global warming and throws cold water at Obama

The former presidential candidate pushed the reset button on his acerbic tone and now sounds more Al Gore than Bain Capital

February 3, 2014 at 7:13 PM

What looks disorderly at TD has the dead reckoning of dollars following ROI opportunity.

An advertiser's-eye view of TD Ameritrade's national conference

Firms that rarely advertise had booths, including mega-RIAs, competing custodians and Marty Bicknell

February 3, 2014 at 4:40 AM

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