Articles published 9/2018
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As many of his RIAs hit critical third year, Michael Kitces uses XYPN Live event to signal his startup's market power is catching up to his mind share
Blogger Kitces and co-founder Alan Moore get buy-in and growing success for hundreds of advisors betting on mass affluent investors
September 28, 2018 at 7:29 PM
Focus Financial buys $17 billion DFA TAMP for $235 million through its $3.6 billion DFA TAMP
The RIA roll-up adds Loring Ward to BAM with 50% cash down and the rest with Focus common shares
September 28, 2018 at 2:44 AM
LPL Financial hires new 'digital' head of recruiting -- IBM exec Scott Posner -- after the old school approach was leaking oil
Pre-IBM, Scott Posner spent 17 years at BNY Mellon where he rose to executive vice president leading the company’s strategic Initiatives group, reporting to the President
September 26, 2018 at 5:25 PM
Facet Wealth appoints Mark Tibergien's 'reverse mentor,' Kayla Kennelly, to woo cast-off RIA clients, a boon to a mass affluent strategy that's failed more than once
Kayla Kennelly will play a key role for Anders Jones' startup, which got $33 million of VC money two weeks ago to accelerate its plan to roll-up small, unwanted RIA accounts
September 25, 2018 at 10:31 PM
After attempting LBO and discarding four other offers, Norm Boone jumps into the Private Ocean
CEO of Mosaic Financial shopped around before settling with Greg Friedman, whom he'd long considered a white knight
September 24, 2018 at 8:32 PM
SEI goes hard after 401(k) plan sponsors by poaching a star from Northern Trust and bundling him up, but he'll be swimming against market trends
The Oaks, Pa.-based TAMP poached Scott Muench from the $10.7 trillion asset-manager and custodian, ending a nationwide search -- and Muench's 19-year streak at the Chicago-based giant
September 21, 2018 at 11:27 PM
TD Ameritrade alerts RIAs all referrals of less than $750,000 in assets may stay in-house -- a knock softened by a more RIA-friendly incentive structure
With a treasure trove of Scottrade investors ready to be divvied up, the Omaha, Neb.-based retail and custody biggie moved the minimum up from $500,000 but also upped the incentives a level for a branch broker to refer accounts
September 20, 2018 at 9:22 PM
Salesforce's slew of new advisor-focused CRM upgrades gets slammed, while a rival CEO says fresh changes won't 'slow the stampede' of RIAs fleeing the San Francisco giant
A year after Salesforce launches its long-awaited Financial Services Cloud--a financial advisory-focused twist on its CRM software that remains a Fortune 500 darling--the giant vendor unleashed a glut of upgrades
September 19, 2018 at 10:20 PM
SigFig tightens its lock-down on UBS's digital fate by absorbing its in-house robo unit and 80 employees, but it's weathering storms on other fronts
The Swiss bank's symbiosis with the San Fran start-up winds ever tighter, but '1,000 banks,1,000 separate versions' hardly lends itself to a plug and play symphony
September 18, 2018 at 5:09 PM
After settling with the SEC for $250,000 over two compliance issues, Peter Mallouk explains what he quietly and painfully experienced as his RIA grew from $15 billion to $36 billion
The CEO of Creative Planning ran into trouble after a local radio host became a client and part of his advertising. The host/client then enthused about his wealth manager well past the SEC's testimonial tolerance
September 17, 2018 at 4:09 AM
Oisin's Bits: Casady and Blundin's Vestigo-voyage gathers steam with near $60 million cash-pile; Ethical-robo OpenInvest raises $10.4 million and flips B2B switch, founder lays into mutual funds
In this roundup, Mark Casady and David Blundin's VC-odyssey, Vestigo Ventures, closes its first fund as the duo outline a nine-year strategy, and reveal they pitched in 8.5% of its near $60 million cash-pile; and the socially responsible investment robo-advisor OpenInvest goes B2B, rakes in $10 million of VC funds, gives votes to passive investors, and slams mutual funds.
September 14, 2018 at 9:29 PM
Founded in 2017 to produce ultra-beta ETFs, Salt Financial goes full 'meritocratic' in poaching 27 year-old Dow Jones beta hunter -- seriously, beta hunter -- to lead research for volatility tracking ETF roll out
The juiced-return index products designer installs Ryan Poirier, a prodigy Dow Jones researcher as director
September 14, 2018 at 8:34 PM
Rockefeller Capital hires Chris Dupuy from Focus Finacial
But can Dupuy help his new boss shake up Rockefeller Capital Management's brand and convince 21st century tech magnates and next-generation middling millionaires to rub shoulders with a Rockefeller brand still best associated with a 19th century robber baron?
September 14, 2018 at 9:12 AM
LPL replaces the great Bill Morrissey with UBS' digital whiz
Rick Steinmeier's hire is timely for LPL CEO Dan Arnold as the post-Mark Cassady game has changed.
September 14, 2018 at 9:03 AM
Jason Lahita explains what it means to be true to yourself by stepping aside from FiComm, his booming pr and marketing firm, to rediscover his true passion
Perhaps the best-known RIA PR person out there, Jason Lahita built a firm that grew too big to allow him to do what he loved best--getting in the trenches and crafting campaigns.
September 13, 2018 at 9:12 PM
Two ex-LPL talents join Derek Bruton and Keith Gregg's Chalice start-up
After just three months in-situ as the president of Chalice Wealth Partners, the ex-LPL RIA overseer gets Christopher Giles as chief information officer and Stephanie Holly as chief financial officer.
September 13, 2018 at 2:46 PM
A $2.7 billion RIA makes Allison Felix, 40, its president, after she started as an executive assistant out of college.
Allison Felix' rise to prominence was backed, in part, by CEO Steve Cassaday who paid for half of her MBA and sold her a minority stake
September 13, 2018 at 2:32 PM
HighTower gets a new CEO, to be revealed later, as Elliot Weissbluth moves upstairs
Elliot Weissbluth's move upstairs ends an era, as Thomas H. Lee's reign begins in earnest, and Mark Cabezas comes in as M&A head.
September 13, 2018 at 2:21 PM
After winning Merrill Lynch, FactSet CEO Phil Snow is challenging Big Data for downmarket RIAs, but convincing them to buy a box is an up-sell nightmare
FactSet scored its largest deal ever this August, landing the 15,000-strong Merrill Lynch wealth management arm; Next, CEO Phil Snow is targeting RIAs, but they'll be a much harder audience to undercut than the terminal-using crowd at institutions
September 12, 2018 at 8:08 PM
A 31 year-old CEO raises $33 million for very RIA venture -- buying too-small RIA accounts, then serving them on a Merrill Edge-type platform in Baltimore
As LearnVest cedes the B2C financial planning niche, Anders Jones gets cash from Warburg Pincus to go after that market with a whole new approach; it includes cozying up to the RIA M&A boys and reinventing how human advisors plan
September 11, 2018 at 10:07 PM
Brinker hires a CIO after making do without one
After the hasty exit of Bill Miller in 2016, the $22B TAMP incubated Jeff Raupp as chief investment officer instead of seeking a ringer.
September 11, 2018 at 12:00 AM
Trap Kloman gets nod as president at Commonwealth
Since being poached in 2015, Trap Kloman quickly earned Wayne Bloom's trust and current president, Rich Hunter, is ready to step back.
September 11, 2018 at 12:00 AM
Raymond James appoints new head of independent advisors
The former Southeast director is now in the position vacated by Scott Curtis as he ascends the ladder -- and oversees Perry
September 11, 2018 at 12:00 AM
Betterment hires an engineer to its board but yes she can market ice cubes to penguins
No longer the disruptive New York upstart, the $14 billion AUM robo is outgunned by institutional heavy-hitters -- a dynamic Donna Wells knows
September 11, 2018 at 12:00 AM
Once so gritty that Utah cops kept a close eye, FUSE in Miami has been up-sized and sanitized by Orion to reflect its more establishment status
With eyes affixed on an investments future -- and Schwab throwing open a door -- Eric Clarke's urgency to seize yawning opportunity is apparent in the upgrade of venue and menu
September 10, 2018 at 5:58 PM
Michael Bapis to leave HighTower and become the first high-profile Rockefeller Capital recruit as CEO Greg Fleming scores major poach
Bapis was Elliot Weissbluth's first recruit to HighTower in 2008 and now he is also Rockefeller CEO Greg Fleming's first poach
September 8, 2018 at 2:00 AM
After dream of cloud-based PortfolioCenter falters, Schwab Advisor Services makes good by showering small RIAs and third-party software vendors with windfalls
The $1.6 trillion RIA custodian gives real-time data to Black Diamond, Tamarac, Orion and others serving Schwab RIAs and small RIAs get PortfolioConnect for free as long as they don't want to track held away assets
September 7, 2018 at 5:31 PM
As Principal takes RobustWealth reins, the looming question is whether it follows the Northwestern-LearnVest script, which had a depressing final scene
The disparity in size, culture, locale and tenure between the $1 billion AUA robo and the $673 billion financial titan, makes the marriage an interesting case study
September 6, 2018 at 7:55 PM
Focus Financial shares soar after Rudy Adolf pumps the pipeline and stiff-arms analyst who presses him on a Focus sore point--organic growth, or lack thereof
The shares are up more than 30% since Aug. 20; the CEO boasted on the quarterly call that the IPO itself sent the M&A pipeline spiraling higher
September 6, 2018 at 12:33 AM
RIABiz turns nine, gets new faces and some facelifting to stay on top of the hottest corner of the financial services industry--RIAs
The online publication adds Keith Girard as editor and Oisin Breen as writer, stays on 14% revenue growth rate without bending to sponsor pressures or using a gram of ink
September 5, 2018 at 3:53 PM
Abby Johnson's zero-fee play for millennials gets to $1 billion in one month but Vanguard, BlackRock and Schwab say piffle; Note, RIAs need not apply
The play to out-Vanguard Vanguard gets stony response from competitors but analysts say Fidelity may actually be a quick study in the freemium game