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Articles published 1/2017


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Jon Stein: We realized we needed to productize this to overcome the notion that robo means: no humans. No matter what the situation, we can help you.

Jon Stein unleashes elite RIA referral unit as crown jewel of grand Betterment plan to sell virtual fiduciary advice

Robo's CEO names Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab as market-share targets of his advice offensive across the full spectrum of affluence

January 31, 2017 at 10:11 PM

Rob Isbitts: Liquid alternative mix concept is like eating a portion of your breakfast, lunch and dinner for the day at the same time.  Each part is potentially enjoyable and healthy on its own, but together it can seem more like a mishmash.

Why RIA clients still see alternatives as a 'mishmash' and 17 other cheat-sheet items for advisors in 2017

Rob Isbitts's well-researched quick takes that'll educate an RIA in 10 minutes on items from margin debt and corporate earnings to house-flipping

January 30, 2017 at 6:05 PM

Matt Sonnen: Ron said to me and is on record as saying that the brokerage business, that’s Cetera, is just an accommodation for clients.

The real Ron Carson story is that most assets went to Fidelity and TD Ameritrade where technology allows him to execute his vision

The big talk was the lateral move of some assets to Cetera but it was more a smokescreen for a breakaway

January 27, 2017 at 6:51 PM

Tim Hockey: I understand why advisors might be nervous about that.

New TD Ameritrade CEO, fresh from bank, will 'reassess' putting TD brand on products and redefining open architecture

Tim Hockey, poised to meet advisors in San Diego next week, allows that RIA business is a 'real gem' but may also be priming the pump to put more proprietary products on the shelves at 600 TD and Scottrade branches

January 26, 2017 at 11:05 PM

Alexandra Lebenthal: I had my Nasty Woman T-shirt on underneath my sweater. I knew it was there.”

Susceptible to acerbic tweets, Wall Street women report back being happily exhausted, starving, determined and 'nasty'

But for one jarring tweet, three women call event epic but peaceful, and a sure-fire cure for that post-election funk

January 25, 2017 at 7:36 PM

Steve Chipman: Advisor Group has the financial resources, products and services and long-term vision to help broker-dealers and RIAs thrive during what we are calling the fiduciary era.

While Advisor Group's high-powered organic growth strategy unfurls, Valerie Brown unleashes Steve Chipman to do the inorganic wet work of rolling up IBD orphans -- and maybe even some RIAs

Poached from Foothill Securities, Chipman cites his former employer as the reason he can talk the talk of his quarry -- smaller firm execs seeking a port in a fiduciary storm

January 25, 2017 at 3:53 PM



John Clendening: The simplest way to satisfy the new DOL rule is to appropriately have clients in fee-based advisory relationships.

How a Schwabian picture is emerging as Bob Oros joins John Clendening as chief of 4,500 underachieving HD Vest reps

Ex-Schwab retail chief Clendening makes the ex-Fido RIA chief his new CEO -- with ambitious plans in an atmosphere of revenue-sharing, variable annuities and commission sales

January 24, 2017 at 12:17 AM

When asked if Lebenthal had ever done something like this before, the response was 'Never!'

Wall Street women pile into buses and cars, head south on I-95 to protest Trump

Pack up that Nasty Woman T-shirt for a pre-dawn trip and client blowback be damned

January 21, 2017 at 2:06 AM

Jason Roberts: The litigation provides cover, so to speak, from the Administrative Procedures Act requirements.

DOL rule will be undone, in a cruel twist, by the Department of Labor -- essentially by a Trump order to cut red tape by staying the Texas court case

Jason Roberts at Pension Resources Institute: It's the DOL itself saying 'maybe we got this wrong' as a means of giving cover to delay.

January 20, 2017 at 11:42 PM

My inauguration day promise to Conservative friends: Give Trump a chance.

How the Trump phenomenon boils down to the benefits of animal spirits vs. Animal House

Stay open to the possibility that tapping into our inner American rogue will yield untold benefits but be ready to hold the politicians accountable if the experiment fails

January 20, 2017 at 5:34 PM

Scott MacKillop: The real concern is that the rule will prevent the industry from charging retirement plan clients high fees and offering them conflicted advice.

The time is now for the investment industry to shed its shameless culture or pay a steep price

Enough feeble excuses and convoluted rationalizations for delaying the DOL rule

January 19, 2017 at 7:03 PM

Eric Poirier: You don't want to be orphaned.

Addepar secures Morgan Stanley account by winning a test of wills and unleashing a small army on Manhattan

Despite initial skeptics, industry pressure pushes first wirehouse into line, but will others feel the burn?

January 18, 2017 at 9:29 PM

Irwin Stein: Unless the advisor is in a coma, it is always an uphill battle for a client to question an advisor’s judgment.

A veteran securities lawyer takes contrarian stance that the DOL is still 'suitability' reworded, when boiling its 1,000-page 'rule' down to 16-page 'guide'

In prolix prose, the Labor Department's 'exemptions' sound like fiduciary exceptions; as poems, they sound like suitability-level loopholes

January 18, 2017 at 6:23 PM

James H. Herbert II still gets paid 100 times more per hour than his bottom-tier workers.

First Republic pays $20 minimum wage in an act of altruistic self-interest

Owner of a $83.6-billion RIA roll-up, the San Francisco-based bank reacts to tightening labor supply, political pressure and its own good cash flow

January 17, 2017 at 8:36 PM

Christian Fulmino

Ascensus appoints Christian Fulmino as VP of corporate development and M&A

Fulmino's CV includes stints at Broadridge and News Corp.

January 17, 2017 at 3:51 PM

Dan Brandenburg

Top ERISA and employee benefits law firm takes on new partner

Dan Brandenburg will join the Boston-based firm's D.C. offices

January 17, 2017 at 3:36 PM

Fidelity can only offer so much to a Gen X talent like Bob Oros

Fidelity begins search for new RIA national sales manager as Bob Oros goes millennial, vacating a prized position

The kids pioneered the mindset but now the Oroses of the world grab quality-of-work, make-a-difference opportunities that their experience allows them to command

January 14, 2017 at 1:51 AM

Julie Colucci

Natixis and Fidelity alumna joins New England Investment & Retirement Group

Julie Colucci was also senior client associate at Silver Bridge Advisors, formerly Hale & Dorr Wealth Management

January 13, 2017 at 8:30 PM

Bill McNabb: This has been a great question and one of the first things I would say is that we don’t trade off cost versus service.

'Jessie from Pennsylvania' blindsides a monotone Vanguard webcast and CEO McNabb deftly embraces his critic

The inquiring gadfly at the 2017 markets chat got in her shot about Vanguard's value proposition and the Vanguard chief humble-bragged about his company's problem of too much volume

January 12, 2017 at 10:33 PM

Virginia Foxx: The Obama administration advanced a partisan rule that makes it even more difficult for hardworking men and women to save for the future.

Who's afraid of Virginia Foxx and friends? Maybe pro-DOL forces should be but no panic yet

With nine days and counting until President Trump, Conservatives deploy fresh troops in Washington with guns trained on the DOL rule

January 12, 2017 at 12:49 AM

Valerie Brown: We serve a lot of RIAs and we want to make sure they stay here and thrive.

Why Valerie Brown is doing 19-whistlestop tour with her new CEO to sell -- ironically -- deep price cuts and a TAMP-for-millennials

The executive chairman and Jamie Price slash bond and ETF trading costs, roll-out robo-turnkey and create so-called NTF platform for brokers

January 11, 2017 at 2:26 AM

Michael Sperduto

Michael Sperduto to cover Erie territory Ascensus as regional sales VP

The sales manager who was once an advisor was previously with ADP Retirement Services

January 10, 2017 at 8:23 PM

Andy Hockman

Andy Hockman to cover Ohio Valley as regional VP of sales for Ascensus

The 14-year veteran of sales in the retirement arena comes to the firm from CUNA Mutual Retirement Solutions

January 10, 2017 at 8:03 PM

Jason Miller

Jason Miller joins Pentegra as regional director for Western region

The Great West alumnus will lead the business development efforts in Western states and Hawaii

January 10, 2017 at 6:35 PM

At 'Southall Financial Advisors' we seek to rob the investing process of excitement. We only abide zealous moderation. But we also moderate our moderation. We see danger in euphoria and opportunity when depression envelops.

RIA value is exciting when the dynamism of moderation is understood and put in the right words

Registered investment advisors know that finding equilibrium isn't simply 'the middle' but a dynamic shifting process using mind and heart

January 9, 2017 at 10:14 PM

Todd Cipperman: It’s always a difficult issue when asking your own boss about outside activities.

A wider window opens on David Zier tragedy as Convergent is made to pay and FINRA and SEC make themselves scarce

The life insurance on the suicide was executed with chilling precision by the ex-CEO and the CFTC was called in to do the regulatory dirty work

January 6, 2017 at 10:46 PM

Knut Rostad: RIAs must also say what non-fiduciaries don't, won’t or can't do. They must highlight tasks that, in fact, many non-fiduciary firms won’t let their brokers perform.

Where RIABiz's view of RIAs as oases-of-ethics bumps up against the Merrill Lynch & Co. mirage -- and why that mirage is still so effective

Fiduciary watchdog Knut Rostad warns that RIAs must zealously expose wirehouses tricked out in best-interests-of-the-investor drag

January 6, 2017 at 6:33 PM

Amy Parvaneh: Engagement brings integrity to a relationship that is both all business and all personal at the same time.

Why a broken RIA sales strategy is more of a repairable passion problem

Remembering your value busts up the dilemma of selling within a circle of friends

January 5, 2017 at 6:07 PM

Jay Hummel: I would put our rep-assisted phone service up against anyone in the business.

After leaving Envestnet, Jay Hummel pops up at American Century with a 21st century plan

The former 'thought leader' is moving three children to Kansas City to more rapidly move the old-line mutual fund company to action

January 4, 2017 at 7:06 PM

If I were to start, say, Southall Financial Advisors, my mission statement would begin: 'I started this firm because I wanted a place where I would feel safe sending my mother or best friend to receive financial advice that would make them confident about their future.'

Why 2017 dawns brightly for RIAs, an oasis of unflinching ethics in an ethics-optional atmosphere

The better part of registering with the SEC directly as an RIA is that nobody is making you do it and clients can feel it even if they don't fully understand your poorly phrased explanations

January 3, 2017 at 10:50 PM

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