Brooke Southall
Articles written by Brooke Southall
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Adam Spiegelman is converting -- without re-papering -- his dad's old Northwestern Mutual practice into a Fidelity RIA -- after growing to $400 million of AUM over seven years at Commonwealth
The Alamo, Calif., advisor is using the LPL purchase of his broker-dealer as a catalyst for his long-held ambition -- made simpler by Commonwealth using Fidelity for clearing
July 25, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Schwab authorizes $20-billion stock buyback and unshackles its sidelined 'capital intensity' -- downplaying previous TD Bank off-balance-sheet proclamations -- after reducing post-bank crisis obligations by $70 billion
Schwab still owes Federal Home Loan Bank and others $27.7 billion but post-bank crisis fears have receded and the willing to be aggressive is back to par
July 25, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Charles Schwab finally launches 'discretionary' version of Schwab Wealth Advisory, removing the last difference with RIAs, and closing a gap with Fidelity and Vanguard
The Westlake, Texas, broker-dealer's CEO revealed the launch of Schwab Wealth Portfolios, where each portfolio move will no longer need investor approval -- a feature long offered by Fido and Vanguard.
July 22, 2025 at 3:28 AM
Rick Wurster says Schwab will 'have a stable coin' after analyst peppering on Schwab's no-show on in-house crypto, but balks at setting timeline for Bitcoin and Ethereum, which take priority, he adds
The Schwab chief celebrated a great quarter on the earnings call and said Schwab's growth will 'accelerate' after it gets a first-party crypto offering
July 19, 2025 at 1:52 AM
Buoyed by cash cow and under new CEO, Grayscale files for IPO just days after it blogged about Bonk, Playtron, and Binance coins, possibly being in its future
The Stamford, Conn., firm still has $19-billion 'GBTC' collecting 150 basis points -- even as Fidelity and BlackRock devour its marketshare -- but Bitcoin's price may open a big window for Grayscale to sell shares to the public.
July 14, 2025 at 11:12 PM
iCapital's run-the-table strategy takes leap ahead after Goldman Sachs helps it raise $820 million for M&A to enhance domination -- and add to previous 23 deals
The New York City alts machinery for Schwab, Envestnet, Pershing and others -- cash positive since 2019 -- fattened its balance sheet to keep the pressure on.
July 12, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Seeking fresh custody revenues, Schwab Advisor Services radically expands 'institutional' no-transaction-fee platform -- essentially OneSource at a giant discount for discount mutual fund share classes
Schwab seems to be adjusting to market forces in building up its platform fee revenue, analyst says
July 9, 2025 at 2:57 AM
Ready to really take on Schwab and Merrill Lynch, Vanguard quantifies 'meaningful' value that financial advisors deliver 'beyond portfolio performance' in code shift
The Malvern, Pa., asset manager -- long a DIY advocate -- is busy launching its new 'wealth' divison under Joanna Rotenberg.
July 8, 2025 at 1:22 AM
Savvy pushes rewritten model with $72-million raise, but taps Mark Casady's playbook for scaling -- something an RIA-centric 'platform' has never achieved at nearly an LPL Financial level
The New York City startup is promising the moon with AI, but Cerulli questions its scalability, and the former LPL CEO knows the scale game.
July 3, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Vestwell gains access to win 390,000 Amazon delivery driver 401(k) plans, hones 'gig' edge, though Fidelity still recordkeeps 1.5 million Amazon W-2s
The 2016 startup for 'small' 401(k) plans landed Amazon's DSP against 401(k) heavy hitters; part of its genius was getting JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Ascensus to lend their presence.
July 3, 2025 at 1:52 AM
In part to re-create the RIA version of the 'HOV,' Dynasty Financial refreshes plan for power-HQ to woo Wall Street brokers into becoming RIAs
St. Petersburg, Fla mayor scuttled previous project for the St. Petersburg-based RIA but the new one is streamlined to blow away the Manhattan 'home-office visit' -- a full-court press recruitment climactic event not really in the RIA bag
June 27, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Envestnet is offloading Yodlee to private equity buyer back in Silicon Valley, which values its 'trusted data access and intelligent analytics'
Under new CEO and new owner, the Berwyn, Pa,, wealth platform is liquidating the account aggregation unit and maintaining long term license agreements
June 25, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Aaron Klein is back in the game with a new startup, a Nitrogen wrinkle, 'hall of fame' RIA backers and a plan to build a better meeting for Advisors
The risk-number magnate from Boise raised $5.5 million from Eric Clarke, Brian McLaughlin, Steve Lockshin, Scott Hanson, Ric Edelman, Barnaby Grist, Yoav Zurel and others.
June 24, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Pershing rolls out new RIA custody fee schedule for firms from zero to $10 billion in assets - a dynamic of competing against zero-fee custodians who take revenues from client accounts
The No. 3 RIA custodian will also continue to realize revenues from muddier non-fee sources but hopes that the new schedule 'clarifies' the murk in its previous pricing schedule.
June 18, 2025 at 12:39 AM
After merger shock, LPL staff apologized to Ralph Angelo for blindside, which he now gladly accepts as first major recruit under LPL-Commonwealth combo
The founder of $1.5 billion Angelo Planning Group (APG) found out LPL was acquiring Commonwealth the same day he joined Commonwealth -- a switch precipitated by Osaic's merger with American Portfolios
