Articles published 10/2025
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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 2,100 big RIAs is making a play for up to 2,100 smaller XYPN RIAs.
October 23, 2025 at 12:50 AM
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 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
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
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
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
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 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
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
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
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'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
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
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
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'
