Articles published 7/2022
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Chuck Schwab reveals Part B, doubling-down on Walt Bettinger by making him co-chair, a day after Part A -- wagering $15 billion from the Schwab corporate treasury on the CEO's future leadership
Jul 30, 2022The 84 year-old founder's elevation of his 61-year-old protege may foretell bigger fireworks from Rick Wurster who recently took over many of Bettinger's CEO duties, one executive recruiter says.
Ashley Arrington is leaving Fidelity for one of its hottest RIA clients, but she'll have to start cold in Nashville to keep her and her boss in the giant's good graces
Jul 29, 2022Boston 'big three' custodian's no-compete agreement will force her to leave behind clients, but it's a small price to pay for a new opportunity and equity in a top RIA.
After paying $22 billion of shares to buy TD Ameritrade, Chuck Schwab is preparing to spend $15 billion in hard cash to buy his own 'Schwabitrade' stock-- spiking shares in after-hours trading
Jul 28, 2022The all-stock 2020 transaction for the Omaha, Neb. rival left plenty of dry powder to do a massive share buyback -- and signal bullishness about the ongoing, unseen systems integration
Envestnet just named an ESG head to meld 'wellness,' 'The Intelligent Financial Life' and 'sustainable investing' into a single nirvana -- that starts outside of the product realm
Jul 27, 2022Ron Ransom earned CEO Bill Crager's trust as chief business development officer and now will define how Envestnet conducts itself as a global citizen and vendor of wellness.
BlackRock CEO preaches a very RIA-like future -- after three awesome wins in five months that total more than $200 billion -- where his $7 trillion manager gets every asset in exchange for unmatched 'completeness'
Jul 26, 2022Larry Fink's New York City firm won 'whole portfolio advisor' OCIO accounts of AIG, British Air and General Dynamics by wholly accepting their fiduciary liability and headaches
Marty Bicknell suddenly has a giant LPL Financial (and mass affluent) future, just as David Canter leaves Fidelity, an executive he tried to forge a future with for mass market advice
Jul 22, 2022By adding the $26-billion AUA 'hybrid' in Sacramento to his $60-billion RIA-classic, the Kansas CEO has a near $90-billion advice empire with Fidelity, Schwab and LPL vying for his patronage.
The FPA takes 'legal' action to purge 'planner' charlatans from the RIA business -- a plan certain to 'divide' members but align it with its chief gadfly, Michael Kitces
Jul 22, 2022Despite opposition from at least 4% of its own members, the Financial Planning Association is seeking to quash quackery by making it illegal for a product salesman to get labeled as a planner -- a fight that Nerd's Eye View took up last year.
Cathie Wood's 'transparency' ETF goes 'poof' under murky circumstances after a star-crossed launch
Jul 20, 2022The ARK ETF bought index data from a South Carolina start up with a largely hypothetical track record created from back-testing
Boom, boom, boom, Charles Schwab Corp. just spent $220 million to shuck three lawsuits--a likely 'deck clearing' before the TD Ameritrade merger closes, say multiple analysts
Jul 18, 2022A 2017 Scottrade class action suit inherited from TD Ameritrade, a robo-advice disclosure settlement, and TDA merger class action have all gone poof.
UBS bets its 'wealth' future on ex-Schwabbie Naureen Hassan, a corporate digital A-lister, who analysts give a fighting chance to transcend PaineWebber's ossified culture
Jul 16, 2022Still a $2-billion cash-flow cow, the Swiss bank's 6,000-broker, US-based wirehouse is milking aging broker relationships with aging investors but needs a new kind of human presence, empathy, mindset and smarts to draw in Gen Z.
The 48-hour mystery of David Canter's Fidelity departure gets solved when RIA custody client steps forward with claim to his future but the headhunter lost his job to the headhunted
Jul 15, 2022Now we know that Bluespring sprang Canter from the Boston giant and that the rollup's co-founder, Stuart Silverman, was the protagonist in the high stakes hire, and the guy who needs to make room for Canter as day-to-day chief.
Eric Clarke is now in the OCIO business -- shortly after 3,400 advisors attended a Redtail CRM webinar -- which 'unlock(s) incredible cross-selling opportunities,' and all but bakes in 'no summer slump'
Jul 13, 2022Orion closed its Town Square deal to sell outsourced chief investment officer services, but Orion is still madly hiring more staff and won't get to kick back for a summer lull.
David Canter is the latest to leave Fidelity Investments amid the ongoing changing of the guard across the company, a 'huge loss,' says RIA CEO
Jul 13, 2022Beloved by mega RIAs for high intelligence and low ego, the RIA custody chief and ex-Schwabie is moving on amid a wider company script of turnover, new job descriptions, ' and wild amounts of hiring
Charles Schwab & Co. turns an RIA page by killing its 'Schwab Private Client' brand to make Schwab DIY investors, with $3 trillion of largely unadvised wealth, 'aware' of its in-house wealth management services
Jul 11, 2022The $145 billion RIA is now 'Schwab Wealth Advisory' with a new president, Rick Wurster, recently taking the RIA under his oversight and software MoneyGuidePro dialed in.
LPL Financial buys its second full-service broker after the first one 'exceeded expectations' following a three-year pilot
Jul 8, 2022The San Diego broker-dealer is buying Boenning & Scattergood and its $5 billion of AUA -- and it's eyeing more regional, W-2 staff advisory shops for acquisition.
Massachusetts and Vanguard Group reach interesting settlement that gives the $8-trillion manager a shot at avoiding 49 copycat suits , quick cash for the state and 65% of a loaf for hapless investors
Jul 8, 2022The William Galvin-driven settlement covers the state's legal fees and sets up restitution fund and a state pay-out, but a pending Pennsylvania lawsuit is likely the first of many to follow.
Charles Schwab & Co. will pay $187 million settlement after SEC drops its 'pre-set for business reasons' case
Jul 7, 2022Federal regulators claimed Schwab pre-set client cash allocations without making proper disclosures to Schwab Intelligent Portfolios clients.
First Trust buys Veriti to seize direct indexing void after big players made early purchases of similar startups, then never did much marketing to follow through
Jul 6, 2022First Trust Capital Partners quietly rose to become the No. 6 ETF provider with a DFA-like approach of high-touch RIA field sales and factor investing; sees a similar opportunity with direct investing.
Merrill Lynch's owner finally invests in iCapital but at the non-early bird special share price
Jul 5, 2022Bank of America paid at a $6 billion valuation after Andy Sieg and Lawrence Calcano had a 'great conversation' over lunch.
Grayscale Investments is suing the SEC to get its ETF approved but bitcoin's swoon means 'public sympathy' may swing in favor of the regulator, a rules lawyer says
Jul 1, 2022The 'hard-pressed' Stamford, Conn., crypto fund manager calls the SEC's rebuff 'capricous' but with cryptocurrencies in freefall, the SEC can say I told you so -- even if its logic is inconsistent and questionable.
SMArtX rakes in $12 billion of AUM, nets $8.8 billion in six months--thanks to a Morningstar mega-boost-- by selling the novel concept that TAMP assets can be quickly converted to cash on demand
Jul 1, 2022The West Palm Beach, Fla., UMA provider grew about 40% in the six months ended July 29, thanks to a prior deal with the Chicago TAMP and by giving RIAs a power that other TAMPs can't provide.