Brooke Southall
Articles written by Brooke Southall
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Focus Financial breaks deal drought and kills off 'hub' talk by merging $10-billion West Coast acquisition with $175-billion Boston unit
Focus Wealth Partners is dominating M&A mojo, transition 'vernacular' and decentralization are out the window as Focus starts buying again with a vengeance.
June 4, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Schwab's 'superhighway' project could supercharge RIA business, yet fees elicit sticker shock and its leap to RIA 'support' channel may test critical alliances
Schwab's 'ProDirect' is aimed at winning sub-$300-million stockbrokers, possibly from IBDs, but a whole world of symbiotic networks may feel the heat of competition from their RIA custodian
May 22, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Addepar finally confirms massive 'G' raise months past closing, but with terms intact and previously unnamed PE firm as co-lead; analyst calls it 'positive sign'
The Mountain View, Calif. firm had the $230 million lined up in January, expected to announce late February, but broke the news today.
May 14, 2025 at 4:11 AM
Vanguard's and Blackstone's plan to bring 'alts' to the masses revealed in SEC filing, but protagonists take passive role, leading analyst to brand the new fund a 'dud'
Industry analysts expected much more after Vanguard CEO Salim Ramji and Blackstone president and chief operating officer Jon Gray did a joint video, brimming with promise.
May 13, 2025 at 1:41 AM
LPL shares surge on earnings beat; Commonwealth deal, 'tracking towards 90% retention' keeps firm on path to be 'best in wealth management'
CEO Rich Steinmeier delivers first-quarter results -- good early signs on retaining Commonweath advisors -- that please Wall Street analysts and investors but he wants more. Much more.
May 9, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Philip Palaveev brings hard math -- and his heart -- to topic of RIA staffer 'moms' ahead of Mother's Day with timely new study
The Ensemble Practice CEO shows just how much women with kids love being financial advisors and why it'd be wrong not to love them back, by giving them room to parent
May 8, 2025 at 1:42 AM
AdvicePay, co-founded by Alan Moore and Michael Kitces, buys payroll software solution from LPL RIA owner that should ease a major headache for RIAs -- getting staff paid
AdvisorBOB, formerly RIAFees.com, is acquired from owner of Great Valley Advisor Group to replace clunky spreadsheets for RIAs with mad alluvial comp deals.
May 7, 2025 at 2:45 AM
The unbreakable 1% RIA fee looks vulnerable to new threats from young clients in skinny jeans, says Cerulli study, but falling fees are not a fait accompli, analysts counter
RIAs are willing to yield some ground to win chiseling millennials pressuring margins, but AI, supply and demand, and innovative pricing are all in the RIA's favor.
May 2, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Goldman Sachs signals Charles Schwab Corp. is out of the woods with huge rating upgrade based on less debt, more cash and 'durable' organic growth
Analyst Alex Blostein pushed the target to $100 after the balance sheet looks healthiest since bank crisis, and TD Ameritrade customers are buying more Schwab products
April 26, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Top federal regulator floats putting 'mid-size' RIAs -- possibly up to $1 billion in AUM -- under sole state purview, and Adrienne Gurley provides insights in an RIABiz Q&A
Commissioner Mark Uyeda dropped the bomb on April 8 and Gurley, a former SEC senior counsel, offered to answer questions about serious practical ramifications.
April 24, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Altruist wins 'unsolicited' $152-million raise, including capital from Salesforce, which is midstream 'very deep integration' signalling shift to $1-billion-plus RIAs
The Culver City custodian now has 20-plus $1-billion-plus RIAs and average size is 43% larger as integrations with Orion, Advyzon and Tamarac lay groundwork to tackle Schwab and Fidelity
April 23, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Rick Wurster puts hard(er) date on Schwab spot bitcoin launch, after key hire and 400% surge in visits to its 'crypto site,' but isn't pulling down crypto red flags quite yet
The Schwab CEO expects house 'spot' trading by mid-April 2026, though Schwab's site starkly warns crypto has no 'inherent value.'
April 19, 2025 at 3:39 AM
Charles Schwab Corp. buys stake in Wealth.com and became latest of Big Three to chase the $90-trillion-dollar asset hand-off
Aging high-net-worth investors starting to seek answers about last, big transfer hold lion's share of Westlake, Texas, brokerage's $10 trillion in assets -- a place where Vanguard and Fidelity have made recent moves, too
April 17, 2025 at 3:21 AM
Vanguard and Blackstone disclose joint 'initiative' to bring alts to mass investors after private 'talks' leak months ahead of planned news release
The 'culture clash' collaboration of the kings of two different markets could be a good high-net-worth retail strategy for each -- but they have serious stuff to work out.
April 16, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Chuck Schwab stands at Trump's side (literally) and wins President's praise for supporting policies amid tariff fallout, while Schwab's chief investment strategist raises red flags
Schwab co-chair intersects with Trump on policy, business [and golf,] while the company's chief investment officer Liz Ann Sonders has little good to say about government policies right now
