People Moves Related to "What exactly are robo-advisors, why did they steal the 2014 show and what will a 2015 repeat take?"
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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, 2024Betterment 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.
Wealthfront's unlikely tapping of Sheila Bair and Tom Curry signals likely push to gain a bank charter, analysts say
Dec 31, 2020The Redwood City robo-advisor's addition of two renowned former chief banking regulators brings legitimacy and guidance that could lead to a margin-fattening bank charter and help solve the robo-advisor's problem of high client acquisition costs.
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, 2020The co-founder of the New York robo-advisor headhunted the ex-Viacom brass through Harvard professors on the down low to ostensibly scale operations.
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, 2025Kim 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.
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, 2025The RIA firehose of news is rife with tactical moves to shore up voids, play catchup and react to a new concept of political tailwinds
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, 2024Shiralker 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.
Another A-list RIA Schwabbie lands on his feet -- this time at DeVoe & Co. -- after TD Ameritrade merger displacement of 2,000-plus
May 10, 2024Tony Parkin takes the reins as president of the San Francisco M&A shop and reunites with ex-Schwab boss who left 14 years ago
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, 2023The former Schwab director wants former colleagues to know life exists after Schwab and good job opportunities are plentiful in the financial services sector.
Schwab 2,000-layoff aftershocks roil the industry as it's revealed top tech talent -- led by widely regarded veteran Kartik Srinivasan -- were axed, raising questions about future of Schwab innovation
Nov 3, 2023Behind every layoff a human story as pink slip to an 'unbelievable talent' epitomizes company's determination to cut $500 million in expenses.
Charles Schwab Corp. discloses imminent, sweeping 'TD Ameritrade' layoffs, indirectly revealed in new SEC filing that reports it will expense severance mostly in 2023 to gain 'incremental' $500 million synergy in 2024 and beyond
Aug 22, 2023The Westlake, Texas, firm had not previously disclosed the cost of terminations -- people and offices -- or that so many of the farewells will happen by Dec. 30
Edelman Financial Engines new CEO will face challenges after AUM plummets $50 billion (since start of 2022) and DOL throws wrench in its business model, complicating efforts to convert robo-advised 401(k) assets to an 'Edelman' RIA
Jul 11, 2023CEO Jay Shah must chart a new course after the 2018 merger of the radio superstar RIA and the 401(k) robo-advisor fails to yield invisioned growth.
Apex nabs Jon Patullo from 'Schwabitrade' to 'raise the bar' and make his new firm's RIA system as 'frictionless' as the old one
Oct 11, 2022The loved and admired TD Ameritrade software chief will bring his playbook -- and possibly Schwab's -- to Apex, which continues to try putting a winning front-end on its old Penson backend, a source says
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, 2022The 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, 2021The 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.
Wealthfront cedes to four years of investors clamoring for crypto by taking on expensive third-party vendor that Betterment rules out
Aug 14, 2021The Redwood City, Calif., robo-advisor turned a hard 'no' into a soft 'yes' by dealing with Grayscale and its 200 basis-point-plus fees, which its robo rival in NYC -- also without a crypto path -- finds ludicrous.
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, 2021Chief 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.
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, 2020Included 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
Skip Schweiss exit from TD Ameritrade means the RIA custody business lost its most visible corporate-paid advocate -- for the moment
Aug 5, 2020TD's now ex-managing director of advisor advocacy is set to become the FPA president, but most peers agree the 58-year-old is poised to 'write his ticket' with another custodian or national RIA
Envestnet nabs Dani Fava to cross-pollinate semi-autonomous units and reap 'financial wellness' as the end product
Jul 23, 2020The Chicago outsourcer has a massive, partially disconnected arsenal of products that CEO Bill Crager is rationalizing into 'wellness' with yet another new unit.
Oisín's Bits: Wealthfront drops old mission statement, declares war on institutions and emphasizes banking future • Seeking Utah charter, Edward Jones may become largest bank in US by branch count • After Advent chief leaves, Black Diamond head steps up
Jul 3, 2020Andy Rachleff cans the old 'democratizing' mission statement at his robo; The 14,200 one-man Ed Jones branches may become branch banks; Steve Leivent consolidates power at SS&C.
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, 2020The 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.
How Edelman Financial Engines spin-off deal became a RetireOne engine that's heating up the RIA annuity game again
Nov 20, 2019The fee-based annuities marketplace of Aria Retirement Solutions adds Edelman's broker-dealer, 6,000 clients, 'hundreds of millions' in client assets and an old hand
Walt Bettinger axes current and former Schwab retail chiefs, Terri Kallsen and Andy Gill; funnels responsibilities to Jonathan Craig, for now
Jul 24, 2019The 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, 2019The CEO broke the TD promise never to compete with RIAs, took it back and got sent packing
With IPO clock at 10-years and ticking, Personal Capital makes two big, out-of-character moves to go upmarket and downmarket
Mar 22, 2019With $9 billion in assets, the Redwood City-based national RIA hired the ex-Virgin America CMO Porter Gale to make one brand investors associates with both the freebie tools and the full-priced financial advice its advisors provide mostly from call centers