Articles published 12/2020
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Wealthfront's unlikely tapping of Sheila Bair and Tom Curry signals likely push to gain a bank charter, analysts say
The Redwood City robo-advisor's addition of two renowned former chief banking regulators brings legitimacy and guidance that could lead to a margin-fattening bank charter and help solve the robo-advisor's problem of high client acquisition costs.
December 31, 2020 at 4:37 AM
The Trump SEC massively failed investors in 2020 under guise of 'streamlining' and 'harmonization,' according to SEC's own scathing report published today
The federal regulator did Wall Street's bidding and lost its compass, according to a damning Securities and Exchange Commission document.
December 30, 2020 at 2:07 AM
Schwab Advisor Services seeks to curtail the RIA bad behavior of speaking apples to oranges by opening its corporate mind and its system's API
The San Francisco custodian granted RIAs access to DNA Behavior on its platform -- for a fee -- to add psychometrics of personality to Big Data to create a Big Picture of the client
December 29, 2020 at 10:57 PM
The RIA and insurance worlds draw closer again as MassMutual buys Flourish, a digital bank with 350 RIA banking clients
The Springfield, Mass. life insurer, founded in 1851, gets the 2017-founded seller of FDIC-insured cash through RIAs in an atmosphere where RIA vendors and big insurers see more and more good in each other.
December 24, 2020 at 6:46 PM
Focus Financial launches house-brand RIA and its shares spike past $45 on scale play, but will the 70 partner firms accept the change?
The New York roll-up introduces 'Connectus' as an 'evolution,' but industry observers see a real pivot, hence a gamble that imperils existing bets on autonomy's animal force
December 23, 2020 at 3:38 AM
Fidelity Investments leaps back to the future in an experiment to restore active management to its lofty perch, using technology that is still more science fiction than fact
The Boston giant is renting a special corner of Amazon's cloud to remake Monte Carlo and do hyper-quant investing like an AI Peter Lynch, with no experience as a golf caddy.
December 21, 2020 at 11:45 PM
Kingswood raises $115 million of SPAC cash and its Wall Street profile by cutting in Larry Roth; but can they buy RIAs at the right price in a feverish market?
With the RIA rollup game go-big-or-go-home, making a royal alliance between British founders and Roth boosted the blank-check venture
December 19, 2020 at 2:02 AM
Vestwell is in and Ascensus is out in Oregon as mushrooming 'force-function' state retirement plans spark heated bids to recordkeep; RIAs are angling for a cut, too
States may force millions of small employers to sponsor pensions, buoying VC-backed digital recordkeepers. But RIAs like Fisher Investments are trying to convince small businesses to set up their own 401(k) plans to meet new mandates.
December 17, 2020 at 9:34 PM
Looking past Covid-19 pandemic, Louisiana RIA buys $1-million building after hitting $1 billion in AUM and hiring the town's mayor
Summit Financial Wealth Advisors was sold to Focus Financial in 2014, growing its assets by $400 million since then but keeping staffing about the same
December 17, 2020 at 3:02 AM
One woman's confession: How I became 'weird' about money and pocketed the cab fare home
To me everything costs too much because love and money got tangled early in life; it made more sense after I became a parent.
December 15, 2020 at 3:31 AM
Schwab-TD Ameritrade merger layoffs leave many ex-staffers shackled with non-compete agreements, hindering job search amid COVID-19 pandemic
The Charles Schwab Corp. has let go 1,000 mostly former TDA people -- many with generous severance pay -- but some low-level staff claim to have been subjected to vetos of new jobs under non-compete agreements tied to cashing in restricted shares
December 11, 2020 at 4:00 AM
Jamie Dimon is late out of the gate, but vows to run twice as hard toward the RIA market, purchasing 55ip and advertising his hunger to buy more
The famed JPMorgan CEO scooped up a Boston-based model portfolio startup that has a very RIA book of business.
December 9, 2020 at 11:15 PM
Jon Stein ousts himself as Betterment CEO and taps Sarah Levy, who joins an exclusive club of top women executives, with a mission -- an IPO
The co-founder of the New York robo-advisor headhunted the ex-Viacom brass through Harvard professors on the down low to ostensibly scale operations.
December 8, 2020 at 5:27 PM
Karin Risi, who built $170-billion Vanguard Personal Advisor Services, takes new role and Matt Benchener is taking her spot as head of US retail for the $6.3 trillion manager
Risi now heads planning and still directly reports to CEO Tim Buckley and her 34 year-old understudy, Benchener gets her job at year's end.
December 4, 2020 at 2:56 AM
Fidelity's Mike Durbin unleashes FMAX as 'Schwabitrade' takes life, but if they build it, will leery advisors buy into it?
The Fidelity Institutional head is betting RIAs will go for the 'killer app,' a one-vendor, one-fee bundle that will free time and mindspace by having the eMoney plan implement itself as a collection of products.
December 3, 2020 at 4:59 AM
Victory Capital admits to 'leaking' AUM after Schwab acquires USAA wealth managers, whose sales efforts let air out of Victory's USAA funds purchase
The mutual fund rollup shed $14.8 billion in fund assets in six months thanks largely to Schwab, but Victory CEO maintains the leak is being patched.
