Brooke’s Note: This is a big story with unusual twists. Bob Oros built his reputation by succeeding in building up Schwab’s RIA business on the East Coast. In other words, he built his career by beating Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services in its own back yard. But after working for Schwab, Oros spent time on the clearing side of the business at LPL; he left there to take on the sales chief position at Trust Company of America See: How Bob Oros landed at Trust Company of America. By now moving from a custodian with about $10 billion of ...

After all the talk this year of RIA deals being made being at a record pace, the mergers and acquisitions market seems to have hit a fourth-quarter wall that has led to a steep drop-off in numbers from the previous year. See: M&A market reaching a new normal based on RIA-driven deals, say competing reports from Pershing, Schwab.

Schwab Advisor Services reports that there were only 57 M&A deals involving RIAs for the full year 2011 representing approximately $44 billion in total assets. There were 70 deals in 2010 representing $63 billion in AUM.

It’s worth noting ...

Three former principals at broker-dealer Harold C. Brown & Co., a firm that is closing its doors after 80 years, are joining United Capital as managing directors.

Peter Grogan, Will Kelly and Mimi Schanzlin, who advise about $240 million of assets, are now employees of United Capital Financial Partners of Newport Beach, Calif. and constitute the upstate New York office of the company out of Buffalo.

Most breakaway brokers find that they take on more administrative responsibilities when they join the RIA ranks but Kelly says that his team was determined to have just the opposite occur. As well as advising ...

Mercer Advisors, a $3.6 billion RIA, is one of the most recent firms TD Ameritrade has won in part from its aggressive stance of handing out pricey technology freebies from popular vendors like Orion.

TD Ameritrade has won a series of large RIAs by doling out a number of incentives and services to advisors to help lessen their expenses – including a free year of Orion Advisor Services LLC and also deals on other technology providers including Morningstar Workstation and Redtail Technology. See: TD Ameritrade uses greater financial incentives to attract custody clients.

Mercer, an RIA founded in 1985 by ...

As the winter sky began to darken in New York City on the afternoon of Dec. 30, 2011, the streets were filled with shoppers. Most of them were likely not paying much attention to the current price of the S&P 500 Index, nor did they realize what was about to occur. Then, it happened — like a UFO (unlikely financial outcome): A less dramatic version of those end-of-day dips that were a daily occurrence during the summer swoon, but just enough to land the S&P at 1257.91 at the year’s close. Yes, after 12 months of stomach-churning ...

Brooke’s Note: The first time I interviewed Jim Pupillo was in 2004 after a top committee of the Association of Professional Investment Consultants met in Bachelor’s Gulch, Colo. He did not speak to me as a Smith Barney advisor because the wirehouse would not allow that. He spoke to me as a member of the consultants association, a group of Smith Barney advisors convening independently of the wirehouse. Its members were largely bent on eliminating all conflicts of interest within the company. When I heard his name again yesterday, I realized that he must finally have decided that ...

I was reading an article and wanted to print it. Aside from printing or bookmarking the article, I was given the option of e-mailing or G-mailing it. I was also given the opportunity to post the article to Facebook or Twitter. In addition, I could have added it to Tumblr.

Although I’m technologically challenged and decided to print the article, some investment adviser representatives might have made a different choice and caused themselves a compliance problem. IARs need to take a breath and think about the compliance consequences before using social media for business purposes. See: Early adopters of ...

Alexandra & James grew to nearly $1 billion of assets under advisement since its founding only six years ago and now it’s seeking ways to handle that growth without adding significantly to overhead.

The firm has been moving toward a relationship with Dynasty Financial Partners for the past three months and it formally activated its relationship on Jan. 1. The deal was announced yesterday.

“With the significant growth we have had it has become clear that we need a best-in-class platform to continue providing our clients with a superior level of service,” says Michelle Smith, CEO of Alexandra & James Wealth ...

Focus Financial Partners LLC just lured another breakaway specialist from Fidelity, giving its recruiting team more muscle to handle an expected uptick in breakaway activity. See: Focus Financial pivots to breakaway strategy with Fidelity recruit.

Garry Taylor, 37, originally from Scotland, worked at Fidelity for five years as director of client implementation and was part transitioning 23 teams and $5 billion in assets during that time. He joined Focus Financial Partners, LLC Jan. 3 as part of the firm’s Connections team, which helps recruit new advisors and to get them onboard.

Back to the Fido well

Taylor is the ...

Brooke’s Note: As you read this article, you’ll see there are strong arguments to be made both ways about whether Merrill Lynch, UBS and Morgan Stanley will offer a quasi-independent model. One factor not covered here weighs in favor of Chip Roame’s assertion that it’ll happen this year for at least one of them. If they don’t do it soon, it might be too late. Quasi-independent models of all shapes and sizes are springing up everywhere and the LPLs of the world are getting better and better at it and building their brands. It’s ...