Articles published 10/2018
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John Clendening tells analyst who asks about Bob Oros's H.D. Vest departure: 'You can read into that whatever you want to.'
Blucora's CEO was evasive but, for sure, his firm's shares plunged near 40% in the past month after its IBD revenues ticked up only 6%; Oros may never have moved to Texas from Boston CEO
October 31, 2018 at 11:21 PM
T3 takes Vegas again in the year of 'delivery,' but it's not all about software arriving at the RIA doorstep through chief delivery men and women
Joel Bruckenstein keeps rolling with the ceaseless demand for RIA software events that he leads where a 'platform mafia' is beginning to dominate
October 31, 2018 at 6:27 PM
SigFig gets back into the robo-advice game with first true advisor product, rolled out by Citizens Bank to help advisors avoid retail and deep-institutional abyss
After shifting more to automating banks, the San Francisco-based firm launches Co-pilot
October 30, 2018 at 2:00 PM
Financial Advisors need to take a lesson from Humpty Dumpty; Too many fail to master the meaning of words and how to use them, costing clients, revenues, study says
RIAs and asset managers are losing out on sales, because they've forgotten how to shoot straight, according to a report published by the Dublin content analytics software firm VisibleThread; and as analysts weigh in, it's clear the problem extends throughout the financial industry.
October 30, 2018 at 5:56 AM
Using robo-writing help, SmartAsset is now 50,000 advisor profiles into its 300,000-profile bid to own the advisor Google search market
With a 15-person 'editorial' staff, a smart machine and Focus Financial cash to pay for it all, the NYC-based startup rushes toward its objective
October 26, 2018 at 8:36 PM
Guess who's moving into the RIA neighborhood? State Farm asks thousands of insurance brokers to get financial planning credentials, sources say
The giant Bloomington, Ill. insurer signs on RBC, MoneyGuidePro, BlackRock and Vanguard and as many as 13,000 of its agents may get a Series 65 by 2020
October 25, 2018 at 8:50 PM
Vestmark calls out Envestnet as it makes 'easy-button' purchase of a $3.3-billion RIA asset magnet with hopes for a spot alongside the Chicago giant -- and Orion and SS&C
The $1-trillion SMA clearinghouse gets an outsourcer to the notoriously in-house RIA market in Adhesion encouraging a new swagger against market leaders
October 23, 2018 at 9:02 PM
Mark Tibergien and Dan Seivert Listen Up! Dave Welling explains why rising private equity involvement in the RIA business is flat-out great
Though not all liquidity comes with good or smart intentions, it beats the alternative: 'Stalled investment stalls growth, stalls innovation in the client experience and caps opportunities for the second generation'
October 22, 2018 at 11:32 PM
Aaron Klein sells against fear and risk in San Antonio -- and hits back at competitors
The Riskalyze CEO has three businesses, an expanding list of copycats, 600 close friends and a rah-rah message: Fearlessness
October 22, 2018 at 10:40 PM
Schwab studies zero-fee mutual funds in wake of Fidelity's zero-fee mutual fund launch, but Schwab CEO Walt Bettinger still wonders 'what's the point?'
CEO Walt Bettinger says a 'really different strategy' may be the outcome of Schwab's efforts in the 'coming months'
October 19, 2018 at 10:44 PM
Channeling its inner BlackRock as bull market teeters, Vanguard Group gets constructively paranoid by creating chief risk officer role with big power including vast new software applications
With Aladdin overtones, the Malvern, Pa. asset-manager puts Joseph Brennan in charge with big stress testing on the agenda
October 19, 2018 at 7:41 PM
Marty Bicknell takes a machete to Montage, Mariner Holdings and FirstPoint and carves out a $25-billion RIA and near $1 billion of capital
The Mariner Wealth CEO made a massive contrarian bet in 2009 on asset managers, cashed out fully this fall -- and knows just where he's headed
October 18, 2018 at 10:44 PM
BNY Mellon goes on a wild poaching bender as it sets sights on playing a very 2019 game of digital catch-up
Building on Bridget Engle's appointment last year, the New York superbank completes three-hire talent binge, with a money-no-object eye to boosting wealth management
October 18, 2018 at 7:28 PM
Fidelity Investments launches its API-forward 'open architecture digital store' as big RIAs demand help fine-tuning client service -- with Schwab likely on deck
The Boston giant's push is more about RIA self-help than the third-party integrations TD Ameritrade makes hay with but now Schwab Advisor Services may be pushed to respond.
October 17, 2018 at 3:24 AM
As SEC's 'zero tolerance' era for RIAs commences post-DOL, a regulatory law firm makes anticipatory hires
Wagner Law Group jacks up overhead with three hires for what could be a bogeyman or a very major shift in the tide toward a more FINRA-like time of rule enforcement
October 16, 2018 at 8:16 PM
After five-year stealth project, Fidelity goes big-time into crypto-asset custody with standalone company
CEO Abby Johnson founds Fidelity Digital Asset Services for enterprise-quality custody and trading, with pledge for more 'investing and experimenting'
October 15, 2018 at 6:45 PM
Unseen factors drove the BAM, Loring Ward $50B merger; 18-month warming, light Focus Financial touch, led to reverse merger in spirit and birth, CEOs reveal in exclusive interviews
Buckingham CEO Adam Birenbaum desperately needed a TAMP CEO; Loring CEO Alex Potts needed a succession system for his TAMP clients
October 12, 2018 at 6:12 PM
How Fidelity used a robo-advice exemption to stick the landing as a fiduciary to 401(k) participants after the tumult of the DOL rule
The Boston king of DC plans had to withdraw from advising plan sponsors but followed a 12-year-old rule that permits a 'computer model' for the little guys
October 11, 2018 at 3:37 PM
FPA soldiers through CFP Board tension at its 2018 national event
It's technically a small dispute with the CFP Board but any rift is big when it's your Siamese twin
October 11, 2018 at 3:51 AM
Andres Garcia-Amaya taps two industry vets to guide Zoe Financial through the RIA referral market's rocky shoals, which have sunk more than one firm
Backed by a $2 million VC injection from JP Morgan and ex-BlackRock execs, the NYC startup appoints wirehouse veteran Robert Deutsch and Acorns' investment guru Chris Jones to board
October 9, 2018 at 8:55 PM
Amid its reports it'll get flipped, Ascensus makes exec hire number seven in six months
Bloomberg writes that the Dresher, Pa.-based recordkeeper roll-up seeks a buyer; no matter, Ascensus continues to hire, bringing aboard Todd Engman as its latest regional vice president for 401(k) sales in the Northern Regions.
October 9, 2018 at 7:22 PM
Dan Seivert and Mark Tibergien karate chop private equity investors for being little more than financial engineers in RIA orbit
The CEO of ECHELON and the CEO of Pershing Advisor Solutions describe the investors like hedge funds that make savvy purchases of depleted oil wells
October 8, 2018 at 7:22 PM
After Marie Chandoha turns around Schwab's smarting mutual fund unit, she steps aside to make way for Jonathan de St. Paer who faces a new kind of momentous challenge
The CEO of Charles Schwab Investment Management got poached from BlackRock after the YieldPlus debacle but now an ex-McKinsey-ite will take on the more strategic race-to-zero challenge of the next decade
October 5, 2018 at 10:21 PM
His days of playing defense done, Jeff Concepcion pinches pennies then poaches a Fidelity and Schwab veteran to execute grab for next $6 billion of AUA at Stratos
Lou Camacho will pursue goal of $600 million a quarter in new assets on behalf of OSJ that wants much more inorganic growth
October 5, 2018 at 7:40 PM
Ron Carson ends national search for chief marketing officer by doing a local M&A deal using his favorite HR broker -- Eric Clarke
When Eric Clarke decided he'd play matchmaker, the hyperactive Carson Group CEO snapped up Mineral Interactive and made a creative deal
October 5, 2018 at 6:05 PM
Michael Kitces reveals 'crazy goal' of on-boarding 10,000 advisors and, yes, it may cause 'culture' problems
At his XYPN Conference, he reveals penchant for thinking big, failing almost never and reaching for the sky under Montana's Big Sky
October 3, 2018 at 6:14 PM
Yet another Goldman Sachs advisor breaks away, risks its legal ire and stands wordlessly by for three months to become an RIA
Gary Hirschberg oversaw $1.4 billion and teamed up with Mindy Daimond and Shirl Penney to join a growing army of people beating a path away from the platinum-brand investment bank
October 2, 2018 at 5:40 AM
Oisin's Bits: DriveWealth is newest RIA custodian with VC money and an Apex mindset; Vestmark hits $1 trillion and promptly gives RIAs means to crank out push-button hedging across accounts
$33 million in VC funds goes to up-start RIA robo custodian; no sooner does Vestmark hit $1 trillion than it pushes out software to help RIAs do omnibus hedging of positions
October 1, 2018 at 9:53 PM
LPL Financial markets itself as a savior to reps at 14 IBD firms under the 'precarious' spell of private equity investors, despite its own private equity past
Recruiters pan rhetoric of the Fort Mill, S.C.-based independent broker-dealer for willfully talking past the heavy hand of private equity in their pre-IPO years -- and their own retention and service challenges
