Articles published 12/2016
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With Addepar muscling in, original UHNW software force PCR hires new CEO, triples engineering staff, kills off asset-based pricing and seeks more RIAs
Dec 30, 2016Plucky Bob Miller is replacing Rob Fiore at the Wilton, Conn. firm with a keen sense of UHNW hegemony and willingness to take half an RIA loaf for reporting on managed illiquid assets
How Aspiriant knocked out another all-stock deal for an $850-million-AUM firm and why such pure-paper transactions don't grow on trees
Dec 29, 2016Stanford had done its own succession spade work and its principals were willing to become workers in a Deloitte-cultured firm
The 10 RIABiz stories advisors connected with most deeply in 2016 and how hubris and humility ran amok in this didn't-see-it-coming year
Dec 28, 2016How did Aequitas swamp CONCERT? Power outages at LPL, Cetera and Wealthfront? Adolescent robo problems? And was that Tony Robbins hawking his money book ... again?
Vanguard and BlackRock slash prices at Christmastime but only Vanguard feels the need to defend its actions
Dec 27, 2016The Malvern, Pa. giant is just doing what it always does, CEO Bill McNabb says, and it isn't just 'another volley fired in the fee war'
Eric Clarke hatches plan to put RIA fees front and center by applying sunlight to 1.5 million accounts
Dec 23, 2016The president of Orion Advisor Services mined the fee information of the 1,000 RIAs who use his software
Will Bond King's plebeian returns in 2016 encourage a thawing of cold war with Morningstar?
Dec 22, 2016DoubleLine's Jeffrey Gundlach still allows the Chicago fund researcher no interviews or due diligence but some fact checks and receives praise -- faint -- in return
T. Rowe Price plucks an RIA 'pain' expert from Vanguard Group to rethink asset management delivery
Dec 21, 2016With net flows flattish in Baltimore, Michael Park arrives to make sales interactions with RIAs more of a 'dialog'
Fidelity warns on the fees RIAs charge as growth of their practices falter yet lower prices aren't the answer
Dec 20, 2016The Boston custodian calls attention to pedestrian 2015 organic net new growth of 6.7% as sign that clients are baffled about what exactly they are paying for
RIAs get schooled on how to cut out the greediest middlemen -- insurers and hedgers -- at an event at Chicago Board Options Exchange
Dec 19, 2016Options Industry Council panel showcased success stories and product pitchers of off-the-rack options automation and our caffeinated reporter swears it was all in a layman's intellectual grasp
Seven RIAs tell what big project they spent money for in 2016 -- and why
Dec 16, 2016Graham Thomas corralled advisor principals at MarketCounsel's Summit in Miami Beach and got some intense answers
Schwab unveils its virtual future to plaudits but using green CFPs as its real people, mandatory 6% cash, could prove troublesome
Dec 15, 2016Move to launch 28 basis-point Schwab Intelligent Advisory by summer checks all boxes on price, robo, planning, ETFs -- and commoditizes what RIAs sell for three times the fee
Quiet Northwestern Mutual may be ready to make a big noise with rerelease of LearnVest -- with Alexa von Tobel vowing that innovation and integration aren't mutually exclusive goals
Dec 14, 2016After the $250-million deal in 2015, the staid Milwaukee insurer has funneled funds into the jazzy robo, packed its board and taken it backstage for a makeover promised for the New Year
Mum on DOL rule, Labor chief appointee Andy Puzder's 'check-the-box' 401(k) plan at CKE Restaurants speaks volumes
Dec 13, 2016The expensive Mercer-advised pension plan has low participation rates, low balances, no matches and few assets overall
How a $4-billion OSJ jumped ship from Lincoln Financial to LPL just before the Mark Casady step-down in search of safe harbor in the eye of DOL-rule storm
Dec 12, 2016Lincoln wins in that Integrated Financial Partners still gorges on its products but CEO Paul Saganey likes the better control over fees under LPL
MarketCounsel Summit 2016 -- the theme is when the boss calls, you go
Dec 9, 2016The Fontainebleau glitters, but not with newly minted Trumpsters, as Summit chief Brian Hamburger got more than he bargained for with the conference's theme of 'change'
Mark Casady quietly became co-founder of venture capital firm and, pre-post-LPL, it's making noise
Dec 8, 2016The departing LPL chief is one of two general partners of Vestigo Ventures, which bought a stake in LifeYield -- an advisor software company
Mike Durbin takes new RIA+ job at Fidelity after an unlooked-for two-year eMoney mission concludes
Dec 8, 2016After Abby Johnson had former RIA chief troubleshoot $250-million purchase, he comes back to stock shelves with robo and alt goodies
At MarketCounsel, a Ron Rhoades-Skip Schweiss exchange reveals new DOL-rule threat -- a Trump-led compromise creating a mutant strain of the reg that benefits no one
Dec 7, 2016The problem, Rhoades says, is that a pseudo-fiduciary standard asks consumers to assume the burden of knowing what's best for them when it comes to investing, which brings the problem full circle
MarketCounsel Summit weathers Trump mayhem as Scaramucci and Priebus bail and Kellyanne Conway makes a night flight to Miami
Dec 6, 2016A frenzied speaker-substitution effort was capped by a wee-hours lobby stakeout for Conway
LPL takes selling off the table and takes out boisterous Mark Casady at CEO in favor of quiet Dan Arnold
Dec 6, 2016The firm's future as an independent public company is assured for now but the abrupt shift in management style poses new questions
Wells Fargo $1.7 billion 'Profit-Formula' group executes breakaway with help and of ... Wells Fargo
Dec 2, 2016Cooke Financial Group of Indianapolis left the wirehouse in a broad daylight, front door exit with some diligent help of from their bosses
Critic calls 'laughable' FSI study that shows only 14% of advisors want DOL rule to stay
Dec 1, 2016The lobby group that sued to stop the DOL rule surveyed 1,300 member stockbrokers -- of whom 71% voted for Donald Trump
NextCapital poaches great Aon Hewitt hunter as it tracks big institutional game terrain
Dec 1, 2016Matt Clink, 39, will be the 401(k)-geared digital advisor's first CIO after bagging RBC and with three more institutional beasts in its sights