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People Moves Related to "Charles Schwab & Co.'s vertical play to monopolize ETF market -- to be its low-cost maker, distributor and manager -- diesels ahead as ETF OneSource grows again"


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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


Biz Briefs: Schwab puts checks for $52 million in mail to robo-RIA customers allegedly misled about cash allocations • BlackRock blacklisted (again) • iShares beats NZAM-exiter Vanguard • Fidelity makes first acquisition in eight years • CFP board realizes Moms don't like CFPs

Jan 13, 2023

BlackRock gets Kentucky coal in stocking, and Vanguard keeps skating; iShares inches above -- by 2.8% -- Vanguard's annual net new ETF asset haul; Fidelity takes "natural next step" for stock plan business; new CFP chair outlines plans and the DOJ is set to become a major Robinhood shareholder..


Morningstar moves on from ByAllAccounts -- sending it to a startup incubator -- 12 years after former CEO Joe Mansueto invited doubts by paying a premium for it after market already appeared commoditized

Apr 11, 2026

The Chicago firm is the latest to conclude that 'account aggregation' is a brutal business; Yodlee, Mint and Pontera have also experienced frustration.


RIAs beta-test Denali, Orion's 'future' • Altruist AI goes upscale • Fidelity revenues soar; weeds out ETF flops • Envestnet nets new CTO • DPL, Robinhood hit milestones • Schwab now inside Advyzon software • Wisz & Fava back start-up • eMoney launches mass affluent 'Plan B' • Trump biz adds betting

Oct 30, 2025

Fidelity is in sweet spot, doing it all • Orion is testing its new cornerstone tool, but it won't reveal pricing until 2026 • AUM milestones hit • Advyzon lands Schwab deal • RIA big-hitters back start-up • eMoney is plotting downmarket growth • Trump follows Robinhood's lead • Joe Lonsdale wants pardon policy changed.



BlackRock adds Fidelity's retail legend and Morgan Stanley ex-retail chief, sparking belief Larry Fink is eyeing wealth channel

May 1, 2025

The Wall Street asset giant added Kathleen Murphy and Greg Fleming to its board and retail investors know iShares and Aladdin.


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.


BlackRock, Goldman Sachs will curtail DEI HR outreach to comport with new Trump executive order, but neither signals they want to abandon diverse workforce

Mar 5, 2025

The world's larget asset manager will subtract racial and gender targets for job interviews but will find new ways to hire candidates that head off 'groupthink.'


2025 will be the year of 'Under New Management' in RIA business, after 2024 brought profusion of CEO-level fires, hires and deals

Jan 2, 2025

First seven CEOs were replaced, then myriad big HR dominoes fell as Vanguard, Schwab, Envestnet, InvestCloud, LPL, Cetera and Orion all switched out CEOs and presidents


Pathstone reclaims by poach Schwab’s family office division unit head, Eddie Brown, weeks after the Lovell Minnick ultrahigh-net-worth roll-up snapped up a $50 billion RIA

Nov 14, 2024

Brown's hire is also something of a 'reunion', given his near 15 years at Pathstone, and through family office roles at both Fidelity and Schwab.


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.


Altruist is CTO-less, for now, quasi-intentionally, it says • Ex-rival exec hired to jumpstart cross-selling Orion products to enterprise clients • BlackRock tops Grayscale • Facet outsources estate plans • Advyzon profits off Goldman exodus • Dan Wiener's RIA has new CEO • CFP count tops 100k

Jun 7, 2024

Shiralker out at Altruist • Orion gives Trevor Noble his cause • Bitcoin has a new fund king • Software maker benefits from Goldman custody exec. churn • Carson Group denies lawsuit • Merge of Wiener's old shop complete • 100,000th CFP named.


Ex-PR chief of Schwab Advisor Services reappears at StreetCred while Schwab loses a corporate PR head and gains a new one to 'protect the brand' after a rough 2023

Apr 20, 2024

Rob Farmer joins Jimmy Moock, Emma Smith, Will Ruben and Jason Lahita at StreetCred; Andrew Wyse, an ex-Pepsi PR honcho, joins Schwab after Joe Carberry departure in January.


A canary in the coal mine, Amy Richardson left Charles Schwab & Co. for an RIA -- before the 2,000 layoffs -- now a robust job market is saving the Schwab diaspora, she says

Dec 20, 2023

The former Schwab director wants former colleagues to know life exists after Schwab and good job opportunities are plentiful in the financial services sector.


Biz Briefs: AdvicePay waives key hiring requirement to land its next CEO • ESG firms may get OK in Oklahoma • eMoney adds new chiefs • CFP Board names new chair-elect • Robinhood cuts more staff

Jul 26, 2023

Alan Moore replaces himself with another guy with two respectable titles • eMoney promotes two • Moisand's third in line now known • Robinhood sacks 173 in year-to-date.


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.


Biz Briefs: Vanguard's tax-loss harvest yields a caveat• Vermont green with envy ... of red states? • CFP Board spends $12 million on bungee metaphor • BlackRock isn't neutral on Credit Suisse • Women are the Goliath of 'David' in UK finance

Mar 25, 2023

Tax-loss harvest gains may have some home assembly required, says Jeff DeMaso • Adrian Johnstone is now in the driving seat at Practifi • CFP Board spending just topped $150 million • and Vermont shares some Texas thinking on ESG investing.


Another RIA whisperer, Julian Lopez, has left Schwab Advisor Services after 24 years to join LPL, which he sees as more advisor-focused and 'entrepreneurial'

Feb 23, 2023

The Houston executive, like Kelly Smith in Chicago, was considered a key service talent for RIAs though Lopez says his circumstances differ.


Fidelity lands RIA whisperer from Schwab in a coup, apparently using quality-of-life perks as lure

Feb 10, 2023

Kelly Smith chose the Boston rival for greater flexibility, better pay and a chance to move upmarket to sell family office services to RIAs that mix with the ultra-high-net-worth elite.


RIA recap: Bernie Clark promises to 'be there' for coming TDA-Schwab system snafus; Fidelity gets custody win; Vanguard dishes out big tax bill to investors

Nov 3, 2022

Schwab RIA chief petitions for 'patience' for coming merger inconveniences but 'repapering' is no culprit; Carrie Pomerantz gets Schwab board seat; Addepar wins $65 billion AUM contract.


Dimensional Fund Advisors, long the flagship of factor investing, struggles to chart a course as a nimble rival and big foot competitors cut into its market--and exploit its slow move to ETFs

Aug 9, 2022

Vanguard, BlackRock and Avantis rattle a complacent Dimensional Fund Advisors with fee cuts and ETF roll outs based on 'smart beta.'


Robinhood gets 'brilliant' upper manager -- and a spare CEO -- by nabbing TD Ameritrade's ex-thinkorswim top exec, hopefully to throw a lifesaver to Robinhood's sinking stock

Jan 6, 2022

The Menlo Park, Calif., firm nabbed Steve Quirk as first-ever chief brokerage officer to 'bridge the gap between academia and reality.'


Oisín's snippets: Charles Schwab brand goes up on Omaha's TD Ameritrade stadium, home of college baseball world series • Interactive Brokers lands an RIA custody insider, Charlie Latimer, to climb the custodian ladder

Dec 27, 2021

The TDA brand lives on until the techies figure out how to make two systems into one, but change is in the air in Omaha, while Interactive Brokers gets a leg up in the custody business with a new hire.


Vanguard Group shows up as 'alpha' disciple with two new fixed-income fund launches as it surpasses PIMCO's $2 trillion with ex-Goldman Sachs partner now calling the shots

Aug 10, 2021

The $8 trillion Malvern, Pa. manager owns beta investing, but RIAs are demanding higher income -- hence market timing and cherry picking -- from their fixed-income allocation.


Fidelity Investments is paying 2,000 employees to hasten their corporate exits, including high-profile RIA overseer, Sanjiv Mirchandani, as part of its shift to a digital future

Jun 24, 2021

The Boston giant offered voluntary buyout packages and the 4% of staff who accepted will leave by June 30 to give other staff room to grow careers and make room for hires.


Charles Schwab prunes another 200 or so staff but assures Wall Street analysts the Jenga piece of TD Ameritrade RIA services is still part of the puzzle post-merger

Feb 11, 2021

The Westlake, Tex., broker deemed John Tovar 'best talent,' hence a keeper, and ex-TD staffers affirm Schwab's good instincts.


Goldman Sachs nabs TD Ameritrade's Darla Sipolt for RIA custody; Kate Healy, Jim Dario and Peter Dorsey are among 1,000 staffers cut by Schwab post TD merger

Oct 27, 2020

Included in the wholesale reduction of the Omaha, Neb.-based broker's redundant talent, about 40% of TD Ameritrade's marketing staff also got word today they have no future with their San Francisco-based owner


Mark Tibergien sets up Ben Harrison to challenge Schwabitrade with a $150 million cut to Pershing's minimum and millions more to develop Veo-busting technology

Mar 11, 2020

The CEO suite hand-off in Jersey City pulls a trigger on a plan to bypass Fidelity's and eventually Schwab's custody units by luring disaffected RIAs.


Jeff Mello is latest to join eMoney's talent exodus but CEO Ed O'Brien says it's healthy renewal at a firm that added several hundred people since Fidelity bought it

Feb 28, 2020

The ex-Goldman Sachs director of strategy and planning at eMoney joins a growing list of departures exacerbated, sources say, by Fidelity putting a wobbly performance reporting software project -- and staff -- on its plate


Head of Schwab Private Client is apparent casualty as Charles Schwab slices $100 million in expenses by pink-slipping 600 staff in face of interest rate 'time bomb'

Sep 18, 2019

Schwab executive Chris Thom let go by Schwab as part of its efforts to reduce its workforce by 3% this week, a source says to get ahead of an expected Fed rate cut that will slash revenues.


Tim Hockey leaves baffled analysts (and everyone else) probing for answers to explain abrupt departure plan as TD Ameritrade CEO; It's about... nothing!

Aug 8, 2019

Discount brokers are facing myriad issues as trading fees continue sliding to zero, causing TD's board to seek a more RIA friendly CEO


Walt Bettinger axes current and former Schwab retail chiefs, Terri Kallsen and Andy Gill; funnels responsibilities to Jonathan Craig, for now

Jul 24, 2019

The Schwab CEO is 'restructuring,' which includes cutting the Chairman's Club program that sent 200 top performers to Hawaii on a free junket


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


Pete Giza and Damon Deru go for Holy Grail of portfolio rebalancing with software that shuffles stocks, bonds... and asset classes; Believe it?

Jun 11, 2019

The RedBlack and TradeWarrior executives see old systems as 'archaic' yet know that the Black Diamonds, Morningstars, Orions and Tamaracs see rebalancing as a loss leader


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