Articles published 8/2024
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Fidelity is 'planning over the horizon' as its eMoney unit packages API accesses for sale to RIAs to private label their own planning 'experience'
The Boston giant jumpstarts a monumental opportunity to a post-application system, say analysts, even if it might hurt sales of the 'whole enchilada' eMoney product short-term.
August 31, 2024 at 2:53 AM
Big RIA buyers flock to ECHELON M&A event and agree on one takeway: It's a 'seller's market' -- but maybe not forever
Cerity, Mercer and Summit Trail chiefs say tripling of practice buyers means multiples are staying flush, but they urge some caution to on-the-fence RIA sellers.
August 30, 2024 at 5:25 AM
Kansas judge shoots down female employee who sued Edelman Financial Engines, calling her gender, race bias and hostile workplace allegations flimsy 'innuendo'
Judge Holly Teeter said Maria Woods didn't connect her alleged mistreatment to her sex or race, and tossed charges against the mega-RIA.
August 28, 2024 at 3:02 AM
Reddit and weep; Fidelity soars 68% in social media interactions, after embracing TikTok and other media, but sticks with the traditional output on Facebook and LinkedIn
The Boston giant' is getting past the old LinkedIn, Facebook paradigm, adopting a more casual tone and using third-party media for 'service.'
August 27, 2024 at 2:05 AM
Tight with Goldman Sachs and light on debt, Peter Mallouk sets 'no upper limit' on 2025 M&A ambitions and is 'very interested' in buying super-peer RIAs worth billions
The Creative Planning CEO put Goldman's PFIM under contract one year ago, and merger experts say the firm's exceptional buying power -- low debt and high cash flow -- puts any RIA into play for him.
August 24, 2024 at 2:07 AM
Capitalize inks 'deep, multi-year' deals with Schwab, Betterment and Robinhood to mine 401(k) assets, and $19 million VC round follows
The New York City 401(k)-rollover startup is using 'Plaid' style APIs startups to unlock $1.65 trillion in all-but-forgotten401(k) assets
August 23, 2024 at 4:25 AM
Barron's annual 'robo-advisor' tally rose to $1.1 trillion but with one huge caveat that draws harsh crticism from industry experts
First published by the Dow Jones weekly in 2018 with about $200 billion, the robo-advisor assets in the rankings soared 400% by 2024, swelled by a fungible definition that capture giant human RIAs.
August 22, 2024 at 5:04 AM
TradePMR brings on four more ex-TDA Apex executives -- not least Marcel Tsai -- to strengthen Jon Patullo's hand in making 'Fusion' a worthy Veo 2.0
TradePMR is continuing its Dark Horse play to exploit the TD Ameritrade RIA niche with a foot-in-the-door strategy with big, profitable RIAs seeking to multi-custody outside Schwab Advisor Services
August 20, 2024 at 4:08 PM
Joe Duran goes big on first-ever 'Rise' deal -- a $10-billion 'Schwab' RIA-- big enough that his business model just shifted with it
The California entrepreneur is investing in '1099-model' RIA that spun out of Private Advisor Group and has minimized its LPL affiliation and is now barely hybrid
August 20, 2024 at 1:23 PM
Vanguard reads the room then launches new long and short duration active muni ETFs
The short and longer-term products out of Malvern, PA. are part of a longer arc and 'fixed income is sort of the final frontier,' Morningstar analyst opined
August 17, 2024 at 1:58 AM
John Wise is back, this time to crack the RIA front-end with AI, after his old firm, InvestCloud, tackled the RIA back-end with the cloud
The InvestCloud founder just landed a big building block for his vison -- an S&P Global spinoff with data for AI to turn into sweet wealth management reports.
August 16, 2024 at 1:40 AM
Envestnet shares climb after it drops 63-page bombshell disclosure about late $70 bid from competitor's board member before settling on $63.15 bid from Bain
The Berwyn, Pa., firm accepted the lower Bain offer ahead of ' Strategic Party A's' sweetened bid because the latter wanted 'several weeks' to procure cash and no part of 'Yodlee' unit
August 15, 2024 at 2:23 AM
With Bain deal [all but] locked down, Envestnet writes off last $96 million of Yodlee 'goodwill,' and the dwindling unit's fate now awaits 'board' verdict
Envestnet has now written off 48.6% of the $590 million it spent buying Yodlee in 2015, after unit failed to meet expectations as standalone data purveyor or internal 'wellness' engine.
August 13, 2024 at 7:43 PM
Rebecca Lynn kept her 'RIA' powder dry since booking big 2015 gain on FutureAdvisor but now she's leading Savvy round with high hopes of applying AI to RIAs
The Canvas principal swooped in, she says, because Savvy is best positioned to leverage AI -- but will need her firm's cash to maximiize its efforts.
August 13, 2024 at 1:06 AM
New Vanguard CEO sends mixed signals in NYC media tour • Arch assets counted soar after $20 million RIA-intensive raise • Fidelity 401(k) business now home to half-a-million millionaires • Grayscale repeats fee-fumble, losing $1.8 billion of Ether in a week • Fixed-income start-up nabs BlackRock vet
Salim Ramji is high on alts, low on IPO and is piloting AI for service • Arch now serves 270 clients, up from 200 in January • Nearly 2% of Fidelity's 401(k) clients have $1 million or more • Dave Antonelli leaves BlackRock for start-up after 21 years • Grayscale's Ethereum 'mini-trust' inflows of $130 billion fall far short of main-trust outflows nearing $1.8 billion
August 10, 2024 at 1:41 AM
Fidelity Investments picks Advyzon to tackle small RIAs, with shades of beloved Orion-TD Ameritrade package, but is Fido's small really 'small'?
The deal with the Chicago up-and-comer all came together in 2024 as part of Fidelity's quiet hire of ex-Vanguard talent to head emerging RIA unit.
August 9, 2024 at 3:50 AM
Altruist drops news on former SSG RIAs -- they must leave Pershing by November for Altruist or third-party custody, catching many by surprise
The Culver City, Calif. custodian called a town hall after negotiations with Pershing fell flat and gamely admits this was not the 'original intent'
August 7, 2024 at 4:45 AM
Raising an eyebrow but no alarms, BlackRock again presses 'vertical integration' with RIA distribution, something GeoWealth seized upon in latest $18-million round
The $10-trillion manager, which has no salesforce, is 'powering flows' by allying, as vendor and owner, with RIA outsourcers like GeoWealth, after previous success with Envestnet and iCapital.
August 5, 2024 at 11:53 PM
LPL Financial had a very rough week, despite BoA analyst intervention, as investors dumped shares with abandon and lawsuits piled up
'Cash' lawsuits are piling up, and even Ameriprise singled it out for alleged bad faith, while the stock fell 7.77%, just on Friday.
August 3, 2024 at 1:13 AM
Morningstar finally discloses what AssetMark agreed to pay for its TAMP -- up to $100 million -- after weeks of radio silence; Morningstar Wealth could finally erase losses, CEO says
The Chicago company also revealed it recorded $3.3 million in severance costs and got more specific about just how much the Tamp was a money pit.
August 2, 2024 at 10:18 PM
LPL CEO calls out big RIAs that flunk 'core principles' and cuts ties with Merit Financial, which revealed fresh disclosures in it's June ADV regarding Fidelity as custodian
Dan Arnold derided the idea of 'captive' advisors; analysts still call the break-up a 'headscratcher'