Articles published 12/2021
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T. Rowe Price completes lightning $4.2-billion deal to become 'alternative credit' leader by delivering heavy cash at closing and promising light touch
The Baltimore patriarch gets the $56-billion Wall Street distressed-bond deal shop and incoming CEO points to 'tremendous' investor demand
December 30, 2021 at 6:56 PM
Vanguard's website snafu -- perhaps an unforced error, a CTO says -- has no ETA for a fix but it led to CEO Tim Buckley to read the automated message script to desperate callers
The Malvern, Pa., giant's mistake may have been chancing a code change in notoriously hazardous December, an IT expert says, though Vanguard points to a third party
December 30, 2021 at 1:52 AM
Pershing hands ex-LearnVest exec a mandate to create an 'end-to-end' solution for RIAs from scratch, yet her first move is to buy the middle -- direct-indexing
The RIA custodian is staking Ainslie Simmonds with capital and a mandate to create the industry's first all-in-one solution from a blank page.
December 29, 2021 at 1:25 AM
Oisín's snippets: Charles Schwab brand goes up on Omaha's TD Ameritrade stadium, home of college baseball world series • Interactive Brokers lands an RIA custody insider, Charlie Latimer, to climb the custodian ladder
The TDA brand lives on until the techies figure out how to make two systems into one, but change is in the air in Omaha, while Interactive Brokers gets a leg up in the custody business with a new hire.
December 27, 2021 at 9:58 PM
Dept. of Labor throws its 2020 self under the bus and walks back Trump-era guidance that appeared to open the door to private equity investments in 401(k) plans
A Trump administration 'information letter' affirmed that PE investments could be an 'enhanced' investment option for participants in defined contribution plans under ERISA.
December 23, 2021 at 3:25 AM
McKinsey's $31-billion RIA for McKinsey staffers pays $18 million fine, a real 'slap on the wrist' considering 'repeated violations' related to having zero recusal process for insiders in its compliance plan, a lawyer says
Federal regulators allowed McKinsey to settle without admitting insider trading violations for its in-house RIA but censured the firm and ordered it to 'cease and desist' from future violations.
December 21, 2021 at 11:54 PM
Walt Bettinger sheds 'president' title and Bernie Clark gets new boss as Schwab appoints Rick Wurster as president and No. 2 in charge
The Schwab CEO gets 2016 'Windhaven' hire to share burden of governance from enormity of $8-trillion post-TDA, post-USAA, post-Motif growth.
December 20, 2021 at 11:59 PM
Vanguard and DFA turn Dec. 17 into Black Friday sale by slashing fees on combined 67 funds -- including notable cut in ESG ETF to nine basis points
Two of the favorite RIA index fund suppliers put more coal in the stockings of competitors and showed the era of fee compression hasn't found bed rock, yet.
December 18, 2021 at 1:46 AM
Apex IPO goes kaput --potentially over crypto, SPAC ties--leaving close to $1 billion hanging and blood in the water for hungry M&A sharks
The Dallas clearing and RIA custody company and Northern Trust Acquisition Corp II have a Texas-style, no-fault divorce after intractable delays forestall SEC blessing of the deal.
December 17, 2021 at 2:26 AM
Fidelity Institutional makes biggest hire in years -- a very familiar face in RIA technology -- in a play for software and data 'interoperability,' something Salesforce 'got right' before it lost its RIA mojo
The $4.2 trillion Boston unit for 13,500 third party wealth managers got Rohit Mahna who was the financial CRM guy at the San Francisco giant
December 15, 2021 at 4:02 AM
Charles Schwab Corp. is crash-hiring TD Ameritrade Institutional staff-- amid wild growth-- to quell RIA service howls, but cautions to hold off custody switch to Schwab to avoid repapering
The Westlake, Texas broker-dealer and custodian of $8 trillion of AUA is hiring at least 140 people, including 50 already signed to handle an upsurge in demand.
December 14, 2021 at 1:54 AM
Edelman Financial Engines replaces 'The Ric Edelman Show' with two 'retirement'-related shows -- including one hosted and owned by Ric Edelman, yet neither (curiously) will refer prospects
The Mountain View, Calif., manager of $260 billion of AUM is splitting a two-hour slot in 25 markets between its namesake's new show and two ringers -- Jean Chatzky and Soledad O'Brien
December 13, 2021 at 7:45 PM
Brian Hamburger takes back Miami, gets 98% show rate at MC Summit, then plays devil's advocate for the M&A mania gripping the RIA business
Attendees made the trek to the Fontainebleau Hotel Resort amid health precautions to high-five flesh and do a very in-person reality check
December 9, 2021 at 10:47 PM
Vanguard makes mockery of 'digital' myth by reporting $1.3 trillion after its new mobile app's panned debut -- then makes Tara Bunch a director
The talent who made AppleCare work before Airbnb joins the $8.4 trillion AUM giant hot on the heels of two fresh software glitches that sparked industry debate over Vanguard's technology.
December 9, 2021 at 3:19 AM
CI Financial picks off another 'Blind Squirrel' to push AUM to $105 billion as the RIA deal market stays nuts
The top-dollar-paying Toronto titan swept the $6-billion AUM RegentAtlantic off its feet at a size where it seems to have few rivals.
December 7, 2021 at 4:16 PM
Envestnet leads $18.5-million 'A' raise to shore up the '40' in the $5-trillion -plus of 60/40 portfolios it adminsters for 108,000 advisors
The giant Chicago outsourcer buys a bigger stake in YieldX and jacks up its prospect list with its own, as safety and yield become a priority in environment where a blue chip, 30-year gets 1.87%.
December 7, 2021 at 1:59 AM
Fidelity gets its crypto ETF --albeit Made in Canada -- giving RIAs a way to buy 'physical' Bitcoin
After Fidelity was rebuffed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Fidelity Canada had more luck by turning to its own securities cop with a more abiding outlook on crypto currency as an investible asset
December 4, 2021 at 4:12 AM
TD Bank basks in the glow of Schwab's $100 million TD Ameritrade marketing spend as it hires 350 advisors and launches competing robo using same branding
Toronto-Dominion Bank's other U.S. offspring will hit the ground running with upped wealth management manpower thanks in part to its logo-share with Schwab.
