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News, Vision & Voice for the Advisory Community

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Brooke Southall

A native Mainer, Brooke founded RIABiz 13 years ago because he wanted to write for an editor demanding articles get past syrupy quotation, satanic jargon and the Wall Street framing of how financial advice gets sold. He spends his days now in California writing, editing and coaching writers. He lives on a houseboat, works in an office and juggles calls across the five time zones and four countries his small team works. He's out to prove an economic major can make a living as a journalist and that articles need not be a loss leader if they are written well and geared to an intelligent readership.

Articles written by Brooke Southall


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Artist rendering of Dynasty deal center, which will have in-house restaurants, apartments and elevators to keep discretion and focus maximized.
June 27, 2025 at 11:29 PM

Chris Todd: Advisors will retain access to Yodlee technology.

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: 'I'm excited to see how this can supercharge advisors.'.

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

Stephen Caruso: Pershing then becomes a cost layer for these RIAs.

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

Ralph Angelo:  When the LPL merger was announced, I started getting a litany of calls from LPL.

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

June 13, 2025 at 10:49 PM

Douglas Kim: Sales are left to the advisor, who is essentially the foot soldier.

Moody's downgrades Wall Street play to target retail clients as piggy bank to soak up trillions of dollars in illiquid investments

The New York City rating agency warns that the 'rapid deployment' of 'dry powder' into illiquid investments is recipe for systemic disaster.

June 13, 2025 at 1:24 AM

John Sturiale: Schwab is proud to be a leader in democratizing investing.

Schwab undercuts Vanguard (and BlackRock) again by slashing ETF fees up to 50% -- math that works when keeping RIAs is a priority

The $10 trillion discount broker cut its international ETF fee by 50%, a fee that is now 25% lower than that of the equivalent Vanguard ETF

June 10, 2025 at 11:18 PM

Mike Wunderli: I’ve seen how the industry’s top acquirers have evolved.

Fielding Miller calls on Mike Wunderli at 'inflection point' after CAPTRUST zoomed to $1 trillion but needs M&A energy injection to hit $2 trillion

The CAPTRUST CEO's firm dominated the 401(k) RIA rollup game for a decade, and LA dealmaker's hire comes as the market has changed to higher multiples and more determined rivals.

June 6, 2025 at 12:46 AM

Fred Fern: Finally selling after founding his firm in 1963.

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

Brad Losson: ‘We want to create not just a path but a superhighway to independence.

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

Eric Poirier: Our focus has been on building a unified platform.

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

Dan Sotiroff: It begs the question: What is Vanguard's role in the collaboration?

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

Rich Steinmeier: We are still in the early innings of the retention effort.

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: Advisors whine about not finding talent.

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

Alan Moore: This isn’t about replacing software – it’s about replacing spreadsheets.

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

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