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People Moves Related to "Charles Goldman speaks from the CEO Summit hotel about what he didn't see coming at AssetMark and how it changed his life"


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Envestnet quietly cleans up a mess behind take-private veil • Michael Kim is now a two-TAMP CEO • Bill Ackman scolds Trump, Lutnick for tariff overkill, alleged conflicts •

Apr 8, 2025

Kim is now head of 'RIA' TAMP • In broad daylight, AssetMark edges closer to swallowing Adhesion • Ackman irked over ‘massive, disproportionate’ tariffs • Fisher sees market upside, if and when tariffs fail.


Orion headhunts Yi-Ching Wu from AssetMark -- its second attempt in 14 months to fill a crucial role -- 'to put a phone book onto a postage stamp' and weave together its tech and investment businesses

May 14, 2026

Orion has $185 billion, but its AssetMark derived leadership team may be eyeing the $5-trillion in wealthtech assets it administers for RIAs.


RIABlitz: Vanguard technology • Pontera rebounds • Ex-HiddenLever's exec success • BlackRock rocked • Vivek's crypto • WF dunks SF? • Betterment dry option• Vestwell poached

Jan 11, 2025

The RIA firehose of news is rife with tactical moves to shore up voids, play catchup and react to a new concept of political tailwinds


Vise resets -- again -- with more executive firepower and fresh vision focused on RIA M&A and 'wellness,' but analysts say its solutions must stand apart to succeed

Nov 6, 2024

The New York City brat pack -- still loaded with VC cash -- is pivoting, again, but with a pitch that has convinced big hitters to join the firm as advisors and president, respectively.


Under new owner, AssetMark names new CEO, but Michael Kim is keeping his CEO job, too -- as post-TAMP era draws near, and company gears up for 'aggressive growth'

Sep 11, 2024

The Concord, Calif., TAMP is adding the second CEO to jack up leadership bandwidth to grow organically and inorganically -- and evolve into a more generalized outsourcer.


SMArtX is loading up on Envestnet talent as re-peopling rolls on -- post Morningstar disruption -- with two hires from the Berwyn, Pa., TAMP

Jul 4, 2024

The West Palm Beach, Fla., TAMP is getting Courtney Robertiello and Jacqueline Burke, and their staggering 29 years of experience for 'growth and innovation,' the company says.


Betterment whistleblowers net $2.5 million • Wealthfront's big pivot leads to profits • Altruist launches tax service • CMOs in at Ascensus, Wealthspire & Joe Duran's Rise • Savvy bags four advisors as Mariner sues it for poaching • Jim Dickson launches RIA stake buyer

Jun 29, 2024

Betterment is also bending to RIA needs • Wealthfront is in the black, thanks to cash • Altruist reveals where it makes its money • Rise, Wealthspire and Ascensus each add two executives • Compound hits $2 billion of AUM • CAIS slashes alts prices • BlackRock ups private debt sales to RIAs, through GeoWealth.


Morningstar's sale of TAMP's $12-billion book-of-business to AssetMark ends two-year run that fell short on growth; whether RIAs stick or flee will determine fate of deal

Jun 24, 2024

Morningstar nets a cash windfall, a better distribution deal, and it reduces conflicts with its clients, but SMArtX is the likely loser, which will no longer administer Morningstar's TAMP assets.


Christa Carone, an ex-Fidelity and Xerox marketing whiz, steps onto a slippery slope at LPL with a daunting task -- to consolidate a NASCAR size brand portfolio... or not?

Apr 2, 2024

With no CMO since August, the chief marketing officer will play catch up for a company still hungry to buy more branded B2B and B2C players.


Joanna Rotenberg is departing Fidelity Investments after only two years, writing that she traveled 20,000 miles and successfully split her retail division into wealth and brokerage units

Dec 16, 2023

At her hire, analysts were adamant the head of Fidelity retail had 'big shoes to fill' to replace legendary Kathleen Murphy and her task of 'digitiizing' retail was no small ask


Orion rescinds RTO order after its staff rebels by hijacking company email list, distributing petition and tipping off RIA media

Nov 23, 2023

CEO Natalie Wolfsen suffers first setback and rescinds a return-to-office (RTO) policy after week of protest to work on a more collaborative agreement on a post-COVID new normal


Orion Advisor Solutions calls 6% staff reduction a 'final action,' after ballooning headcount 40-plus percent since 2020 by gorging on Brinker, Redtail and five other companies

Sep 30, 2023

The Omaha, Neb., administrator of $3.6 trillion will cut 'duplicative' back office jobs to reduce staff to 1,320 from about 1,400.


Orion names 'left-brained' Natalie Wolfsen as CEO to replace Eric Clarke, and AssetMark, which synchronized its announcement, hires Michael Kim as her replacement

Sep 8, 2023

Orion Chairman Charles Goldman again lures his protege to self-replace, while Michael Kim was 'integral to AssetMark’s record financial performance over the past several years'


Cetera hiring Mike Durbin as CEO -- overseeing its existing 'CEO' -- completes Genstar's stellar HR week after it put Charles Goldman atop Orion's board -- with 'exponential' growth in mind for the 'middle market' companies

May 18, 2023

The Los Angeles broker-dealer nabbed the Fidelity legend to take its $118-billion AUM and 8,000 advisors higher, just as Orion -- also majority owned by Genstar -- makes a similar move.


Biz Briefs: The sorry scene at my local First Republic branch • Schwab launches new (smaller) lay-off round • Schwab hoovers pennies passing FINRA fee to clients • Gensler pleas for funds • Fidelity owner's private equity pres. retires • an Orion-Envestnet staff switcheroo • LPL dumps FutureAdvisor

Apr 29, 2023

Range Rovers screeched in and drivers joined a grim queue to get their cash, and cookie • The Schwab-TDA deal cull count now stands at roughly 3.5% of its staff • FMR's hockey star president has stepped down • SEC chief wants more enforcers • An Envestnet executive proves joining a rival is good business • LPL now has an in-house robot.


Fidelity will hire 4,000 staff in first half -- a staggering number but a tapering off from 'unprecedented' rate in 2021-2022 that catapulted it to 68,000 employees

Feb 17, 2023

The $10.3 trillion giant explains its hiring -- in a layoff environment -- as an RIA-like goal, namely having the human bandwidth to develop 'lifetime' relationships with its 40 million investors


Fidelity Investments' plan to hire 12,000 by October hit wall of macro-headwinds; no problem, it landed at 15,000; Schwab keeps hiring, too

Oct 29, 2022

The Boston giant's people grab could be derailed by indigestion -- the inability to assimilate staff -- an analyst says; but it has yet to materialize so the hiring spree rolls on.


AssetMark suddenly parts ways with president/CEO Charles Goldman; protégé Natalie Wolfsen named CEO; Michael Kim president

Feb 24, 2021

AssetMark chairwoman Xiaoning Jiao provided no details, faint praise for Goldman amid his unexpected departure, but was effusive over Wolfsen appointment.


Fidelity Investments loses Kathleen Murphy who largely caught up Fido to Schwab (near $4T) on the retail side by reversing net promoter scores

Jan 23, 2021

The 'no whining allowed' leader of the Boston giant's retail business, who oversaw $2 trillion in net new assets, was ready to exit but hung in through a year dominated by COVID-19 challenges


Second Betterment exec departs as new CEO Sarah Levy orients to her first month on the job and is confronted by personnel matters

Jan 19, 2021

Chief operating officer Dustin Lucien is the latest to leave the New York City robo-advisor, one of at least eight positions open as it prepares a push across multiple business lines to ignite growth.


Jon Stein ousts himself as Betterment CEO and taps Sarah Levy, who joins an exclusive club of top women executives, with a mission -- an IPO

Dec 8, 2020

The co-founder of the New York robo-advisor headhunted the ex-Viacom brass through Harvard professors on the down low to ostensibly scale operations.


Fidelity Institutional looks like a big TAMP after Mike Durbin removes last internal walls between products and advisors after 'meteoric' 2019 leap; two Fido RIA sales legends depart amid the shift

Mar 13, 2020

Rich Policastro and Tom Valverde are out after Fidelity Custody & Clearing assets leap to $2.6 trillion AUA, restructuring gets the credit -- and so restructuring gets extended.


TD Ameritrade's board suddenly pushes out Tim Hockey after his big misread of RIAs; Tom Bradley name-dropped as successor

Jul 23, 2019

The CEO broke the TD promise never to compete with RIAs, took it back and got sent packing


Capital Group miraculously recovered after deep 2008 dive but RIA help may get No. 2 American Funds through the next downturn under new CEO

Nov 2, 2018

Matthew O’Connor takes the CEO helm of the giant LA-based active manager from Kevin Clifford with conviction not to jam the rudder hard but to be open to new markets


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