Articles published 9/2024
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Federal judge, who tossed Stephen Greco's sweeping RIA lawsuit, grants leave to refile with more facts and less 'overlong and needlessly complex' arguments
Sep 28, 2024Judge LaShonda Hunt keeps long-running, widely watched case against Creative Planning, Schwab, Fidelity and TD Ameritrade hanging by a thread.
The folksy Kitces 'fintech map' ballooned by 265% to 485 brands over six years, a sensation sowing seeds of its own destruction, making Kitces chart two new 'maps' -- including an app
Sep 27, 2024The Kitces map is wildly popular but increasingly Nascar-ized, which may not discourage further RIA software brand atomization, but has bundlers scrambling to react.
Envestnet shareholders make it official, they want out of public shares, clearing Bain Capital to press forward -- leaping other hurdles and getting the TAMP at a cash-in-hand discount
Sep 26, 2024The in-limbo Berwyn company still doesn't have a permanent CEO and one losing bidder was FNZ, which is also its named RIA custody partner
Charles Schwab Corp. sets 2025 to shut down RIA robo-advisor, will stop onboarding RIA clients in November 2024, offering legacy TD Ameritrade software as replacement
Sep 25, 2024The sister robo advisor, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, will live on as a retail offering but got nixed from Schwab's wealth RIA -- expunging reference to 2022 SEC sanction -- and now will be under RIA of Charles Schwab Investment Management
Pontera password-sharing business model is a bridge too far for Fidelity; it bans the practice for its 401(k) plans in blow to the fintech's future
Sep 24, 2024The $4.5-trillion recordkeeper cites data security as the immediate concern but it also cites a clash between unauthorized, unidentified third-party advisors executing trades -- without plan sponsor oversight
Betterment changes its RIA custody brand to 'Advisor Solutions' -- a sign that digital innocence and niche marketing are now passé -- but its RIA clients are applauding
Sep 21, 2024RIAs prefer if CEO Sarah Levy goes fuller service even if it means introducing a few analog necessities anti-thetical to startup dreams
Schwab Advisor Services discloses IMPACT 2024 details -- think Jon Beatty, AI experts and Dan Pink; it veils the venue, but ... psssstt
Sep 20, 2024The $9.5-trillion brokerage shows its heart is still in San Francisco, and of course, it's hosting at the Moscone Center, featuring new head Jon Beatty, Rick Wurster and Walt Bettinger [no Bernie or Chuck]
Dani Fava era of buying à la carte tech for Carson Group takes shape with 'modular'-minded YCharts deal -- but Orion is still the mainstay
Sep 19, 2024YCharts -- a 'Bloomberg-terminal-lite' for RIAs -- signals its less-known risk software gave it a leg up to become part of refreshed Carson strategy to be more 'flexible and innovative.'
RIA citizen and pro comments range from 'shocked! shocked!' to 'ho-hum' on Fed's 50-point rate cut but agree on key points
Sep 19, 2024Small wealth practice owners and economists agree employment and housing can benefit from cheaper money, but inflation reduction could be arrested
eMoney and Flourish collaborate to gather assets by addressing client inertia with a new tool to sweep stranded, held-away deposits into higher yielding Flourish accounts
Sep 18, 2024The Fidelity-owned software vendor's aim is to aggregate held away assets but will stay well clear of moving sweep cash or identifying choices.
Wealth.com extends win streak, again -- Google Ventures (GV) leads its 'A' round -- by making AI-driven estate planning seem doable to advisors
Sep 17, 2024The 2020 Phoenix startup wins $30 million after it scored the ultimate wealth URL then kept rolling winning big vendors, big RIA tech awards and big-name backing.
Two 27-year-olds raise $3.6 million to mine 'real-time,' high-net-worth RIA leads, with AI doing double duty to wire client-advisor chemistry
Sep 13, 2024Farbod Nowzad and Eshan Govil, who co-founded Cashmere, start by mining life events as they are happening then take steps not to squander good timing
Knut Rostad: The 'fiduciary' movement's lost mojo tracks with the rise of Reg BI, which harmonizes advisors by making sure are all conflicted alike
Sep 12, 2024Wall Street brokerages and SIFMA won the SEC over to a suitability standard with a false label, and advisors are left with a public perception still in line with car salesmen, says Rostad, a fiduciary expert.
Under new owner, AssetMark names new CEO, but Michael Kim is keeping his CEO job, too -- as post-TAMP era draws near, and company gears up for 'aggressive growth'
Sep 11, 2024The Concord, Calif., TAMP is adding the second CEO to jack up leadership bandwidth to grow organically and inorganically -- and evolve into a more generalized outsourcer.
Vanguard is finally flavoring its 'vanilla' robo-RIA with 99.7% lower minimum, a 25 basis-point 'active' version -- and 'personalized coaching,' albeit provided by a robot
Sep 10, 2024The new Malvern, Pa., CEO gets a new toy -- a killer $330-billion RIA unit with a Robo arm -- that was not in his arsenal during his BlackRock days.
Two years after infamous reversal, Vanguard votes 'yes' on zero of 400 ESG proposals but it also shot down anti-ESG proposals
Sep 7, 2024After cutting ties with Net Zero alliance, the Malvern, Pa. giant netted zero pro-ESG votes but it also won grudging appreciation from ESG advocates for voting against 40 anti-ESG proposals
Salim Ramji will match, then 'exceed,' Vanguard rivals' technology with Amazon help -- a move Fidelity has already made -- and he's an outright 'Boglehead,' he says in new interview
Sep 6, 2024The new Vanguard CEO acknowledges the company 'could have started earlier' than three years ago, and his domain architect, Joseph Wagner, Jr., says starting fresh is helping purge 'weird errors.'
Marty Bicknell buys a second M&A shop 10 years after the first • Advisor360 repeopling includes new people officer, and seven other major hires • By women, for women corporate RIA nets 10th partner
Sep 5, 2024Mariner CEO is again reversing the predatory script • Some 53% of Advisor360's 15-strong senior management joined the firm in the last 12 months • LGBTQIA+-friendly corporate RIA grows AUM to $283 million, after three new partners join.
Steve Chen sunsets 'NewRetirement,' launches a new brand and is set to take financial planning to vast masses, starting with RIA and enterprise C-suite chats
Sep 4, 2024The founder of [now] 'Boldin' got to $70 billion and 30,000 customers as a 'consumer' app but the hard pivot to -- foremost -- an enterprise platform is set to go full tilt and '10X' comes into focus.