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Articles published 10/2025


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Reed Colley: Orion Denali AI is the cornerstone of Orion’s future – a future where every facet of wealth management is powered by intelligence.

RIAs beta-test Denali, Orion's 'future' • Altruist AI goes upscale • Fidelity revenues soar; weeds out ETF flops • Envestnet nets new CTO • DPL, Robinhood hit milestones • Schwab now inside Advyzon software • Wisz & Fava back start-up • eMoney launches mass affluent 'Plan B' • Trump biz adds betting

Fidelity is in sweet spot, doing it all • Orion is testing its new cornerstone tool, but it won't reveal pricing until 2026 • AUM milestones hit • Advyzon lands Schwab deal • RIA big-hitters back start-up • eMoney is plotting downmarket growth • Trump follows Robinhood's lead • Joe Lonsdale wants pardon policy changed.

October 30, 2025 at 3:50 AM

From left: Eric Clarke, Brian McLaughlin and Mike Wilson on Hamachi.ai launch day. Mustapha Baassiri is just out of the frame.

Eric Clarke's startup is taking on a giant unseen RIA problem -- bifurcation of wealth and investments, but will asset managers pick up the tab?

The Orion founder has his old Omaha cohorts, plus Michael Wilson, all-in with Hamachi on solving the onslaught of model portfolios replacing in-house investment management -- and the communication gap it created between outsourcer and end investor.

October 29, 2025 at 2:00 AM

Brian McDonald: New models are taking shape in the independent arena.

Dynasty makes 24-year ex-Schwabbie its advisor and buys a stake in his startup -- a stock plan services play that connects to $129-billion OpenArc poach

The St. Petersburg RIA platform paid an undisclosed amount for a piece of an AI-powered equity compensation platform and hints strongly about a bigger 'stock plan' play it has already staked its future on

October 28, 2025 at 3:45 AM

Liz Nesvold: We've got no time horizon. I'd love to stay invested for a decade-plus

Jim Dickson's RIA venture launched with a bang, but high flying co-founder Mark Penske and industry icon Eric Clarke exit board after Emigrant Partners steps in as minority investor

In exclusive interview Emigrant Partners Chair Liz Nesvold stays bullish on the firm, but questions remain about its board, its owners, who's running the company and a hastily rewritten ADV2.

October 28, 2025 at 2:36 AM

Kunal Kapoor: Must grow Morningstar without subtracting from its gilded reputation as Switzerland.

Morningstar is betting $375 million on an indexing acquisition, but agonizing over a conflict posed by rating funds -- 16 Vanguard ETFs included -- benchmarking its data

The Chicago giant will add as much as $65 million to its current $2.28 billion in revenue by buying CRSP, but the reputational risk is real for a company best known as a disinterested third party fund tracker.

October 25, 2025 at 1:04 AM

Brian Hamburger [with Bill Crager on right]:  'For three straight years, we got word that our keynote had canceled during my flight to the event. I took a certain devious pleasure in sharing that news with our team, who came to expect it without flinching.'

EXCLUSIVE: Brian Hamburger pauses 'MarketCounsel Summit' due to 'oversaturated' and 'transactional' RIA events market -- but he has an eye on a new 'RIA' model of in-person get-togethers

In a Q&A, the RIA attorney explains the wild amount of work and creativity he and his firm expend and how the protocol for a 3 pm espresso at one industry event captured what he doesn't like about the new RIA confab era.

October 24, 2025 at 2:49 AM

Reed Colley: For Orion, it's a long-game play.

Orion makes down payment on its future by granting XY Planning Network a long-sought sweetheart deal -- a freemium framework for RIAs that gives Orion a dynamic growth pipeline

With Reed Colley as president, the Omaha software firm serving 2,500 big RIAs is making a play for up to 2,100 smaller XYPN RIAs.

October 23, 2025 at 12:50 AM

Jason Wenk: I've a tendency as an entrepreneur to want to tackle every problem in the industry - but that's not wise, or possible.

Altruist cuts two dozen workers in second layoff round this year, for a net staff slide of 16%, despite growth -- ‘It’s on me,’ says Jason Wenk

The Culver City, Calif., custodian's CEO issued the mea culpa, citing loss of focus, but says company hiring should cut headcount losses to 14% on the year

October 21, 2025 at 10:27 PM

Rick Wurster: There's nothing from a regulatory standpoint, standing in our way.

Rick Wurster again shows he's a different kind of Schwab CEO by owning crypto launch delay -- and making RIAs a prominent topic -- on quarterly Wall Street call

Now 10 months-plus into the top job, Wurster proclaims regulatory all-clear on blockchain assets and talks RIAs in near proportion to their $5 trillion with the Texas brokerage

October 17, 2025 at 10:41 PM

Kevin Hughes: Our customers are willing to use Advyzon financial planning. They have voiced this quite a bit.

Advyzon's new financial planning software runs headlong into a 'saturated market,' but CEO Hailin Li says two key hires will lead 'go-to-market' strategy

MoneyGuidePro veterans Kevin Hughes and Tony Leal have joined the firm as it shoots for a share of 2,300 advisors leaving Morningstar Office in early 2026.

October 16, 2025 at 10:36 PM

Shuang Chen: Our sales conversion rate is through the roof.

RightCapital makes a run at eMoney and MoneyGuidePro with a new tool to bypass the pain of back-office data entry, but one rival says been there, done that, so bring it on

The standalone Connecticut software firm says its ‘optical character recognition,’ or OCR system, is a game changer, removing a top objection to its sales growth, CEO says.

October 15, 2025 at 10:53 AM

Rick Wurster's play for more wealth management assets now includes keeping most referrals in-house.

Charles Schwab plans to keep or self-refer all sub-$2-million accounts in 'seismic' shift for many RIAs -- and 'gloves off' for Schwab's wealth management evolution

By raising the minimum 300%, it's cutting total referrals by half and may be a 'killer' for many RIAs that seek to onboard Schwab's mass affluent.

October 14, 2025 at 12:40 AM

Yoav Zurel: The real question isn’t about credential sharing... clients want this service and willingly trust Pontera.

Pontera CEO heats up year-long battle over Fidelity ban on credential sharing, with an 'open letter' accusing the No. 1 plan provider of a 'power grab'

Fidelity's answer to an RIABiz request for a response was blunt; the company has never given consent to Pontera, its competitors or the advisors to use their financial technology to access its data.

October 11, 2025 at 4:03 AM

Bill Crager: My brain started to kick in, and I can see so clearly what’s missing.

Bill Crager leaps back into the RIA fray with 'moonshot' bid to Envestnet-ize alts backed by WestCap and Laurence Tosi

The co-founder and former president and CEO of Envestnet is back in the day-to-day RIA biz, but as an 'operator' in an attempt to create software that connects all the tools needed to manage alternative assets.

October 9, 2025 at 8:21 PM

Andrew Salesky: We’re helping companies deliver stock plan experiences.

Schwab just announced another stock plan-related deal after helping OpenArc launch $129-billion stock plan RIA, an 'impactful funnel,' Cerulli analyst says

The $11-trillion brokerage will fund and also use Qapita to 'power' stock plan management inside private companies -- complementing its biggest-ever breakaway from Merrill Lynch, which is focused on public company plans

October 9, 2025 at 2:28 AM

Gary Dorfman: In our view, American Exceptionalism has nothing to do with politics.

With reports of its demise greatly exaggerated, Strive's RIA spins out as 'Thryve' --minus Vivek Ramaswamy and capital from JD Vance and Peter Thiel -- in a 'clean break' with a more apolitical vibe

Now a $270-million of managed assets RIA, Thryve is rebooting its original roll-up strategy, and (mostly) kicking political leanings to the curb.

October 8, 2025 at 6:45 PM

Bryan Armour: [Robinhood's] new fund filing seems reckless.

Robinhood ready to 'open the gates' on one-trade alts for its high-click investors, but Morningstar warns its 'move-fast-break-things' history could drive its new closed-end fund off the tracks

'The firm is operating outside of the circle of competence … lacks money-management experience and has never offered access to private markets in the US,' the ratings agency says.

October 7, 2025 at 2:10 AM

Josh Brown: We were turning down hundreds of people ... these were our readers.

Josh Brown's RIA keeps growing at $1 billion a year (on average) -- with a radically organic business model --and could supercharge its mass affluent pipeline by using Altruist to power revamped FutureAdvisor (aka Good Advice)

Ritholtz Wealth was two guys, two blogs and a few hundred million under management but it just hit $6 billion, up from $2.8 billion in 2022, with zero outside capital and only one M&A deal for FutureAdvisor)

October 4, 2025 at 1:10 AM

Robb Baldwin: 'Custodians hardly do anything to help advisors grow organically.'

Robinhood stakes unlimited cash to pay RIA clients for the 'pain of repapering' to custody at TradePMR, and 40 big RIAs so far have taken the bait; its no 'gimmick,' says custody chief

The Gainesville, Fla. custodian will pay 0.5% -- $5,000 for every million -- an unheard of sales tactic in staid RIA custody -- harkening back to Robinhood's bedeviling Schwab with unthinkable, zero-fee commissions.

October 3, 2025 at 1:44 AM

Ryan Eisenman: We’re seeing a higher rate of switching to and adopting Arch ... but our clients are asking for more.

Unsexy Arch again proves irresistible to 'RIA' VCs, who buy $52 million stake and see it as the 'Stripe' between RIAs and alts providers-- eliminating hundreds of alt investment portal log-ins

The New York City data translator is capitalizing on its 125% year-over-year growth, $275 billion of administered assets and 450 clients, including 100 RIAs

October 2, 2025 at 1:25 AM

Shirl Penney: “It's not leveled the playing field. It has tilted in our favor in the RIA space.

Schwab, Dynasty and Merrill Lynch breakaway team gain 'leverage' in coming arbitration after rebuffing Merrill's TRO attempt -- but Merrill is still calling it a 'raid' and conspiracy that it will prevail on

Defendants Schwab and Dynasty weighed in with sharp, written responses defending their part in aiding the $129-billion OpenArc RIA opening for business; Merrill is calling TRO process a 'first step'

October 1, 2025 at 2:45 AM

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