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Articles published 9/2013


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David Canter: From the session on valuation, we learned that it's more complex than most are willing to admit.

What happened when Fidelity Investments called 25 deal-making protagonists to its Boston sanctum for a talk about the suboptimal RIA M&A market

David Canter recounts what his company set out to do, who showed up and what the pooling of ideas yielded

September 30, 2013 at 5:38 PM

Jack Waymire: Advisors still have to win to make money. Most advisors do what it takes to win.

Why a reputation of shadiness persists in the financial advisory industry

Quite literally the truth never sees the full light of day -- and clients and quality advisors pay a price for it

September 30, 2013 at 5:15 PM

Andrew Dierdorf: We're focused on shareholder outcomes.

After 'a lot of flak' Fidelity Investments does a study and pledges to change how it manages its $170 billion of target date funds

The Boston giant announces findings to justify its surprising embrace of stocks but skeptics say Fidelity is under pressure to conform with rivals T. Rowe Price and Vanguard Group

September 27, 2013 at 4:56 AM

Reed Colley: I love solving problems and I've not always been the best at implementing solutions.

Reed Colley steps down from executive-level duties after selling Black Diamond

With bucks in the bank and his Advent mission largely accomplished, the 36-year-old entrepreneur is eyeing ventures, offering his two cents at Advent when asked

September 26, 2013 at 3:55 AM

Wayne Meier: When Amerprise sold them, I was glad to see it.

How exactly Securities America won back a $414 million team that left in a huff in 2007

The once embattled broker-dealer -- after switching out Ameriprise as owner -- is determined to woo back former advisors who left during turmoil

September 26, 2013 at 3:52 AM

Pete Hess: I think we're really going to shock some people...it gives me a great feeling.

Peter Hess throws a Black Diamond lifeline to stubborn Advent Axys users, but will the price be right?

The Advent CEO shows his respect for 1,400 change-averse Axys loyalists -- who hold hundreds of billions in assets -- by paving the way for delivery of Black Diamond's coveted reports

September 25, 2013 at 5:46 PM

Tom Petrone is back in the game, but this time he'll be squaring off against his old charges.

After several quiet months, Dynasty Financial hunts a big ex-Citi head to unblock the sales process and make good it's original promise to corner-office prospects

By luring Tom Petrone out of Greenwich hibernation, the NYC platform company can tell would-be breakaways that their offering is strictly hard-bodied

September 25, 2013 at 4:45 PM

Mike Durbin: We will be working very closely with those active clients with less than $15 million to see how we may be able to help them grow their business.

Fidelity's annual $10,000 custody fee will attach to a wider swath of small RIAs

The dinging of the under-$15-million crowd is painful for initiates but a pleasing prospect for competing custodians ready to welcome defectors

September 24, 2013 at 5:02 AM

Sharon Miller: We partner back and forth between Merrill Lynch and Merrill Edge so it is seamless.

The amazing success of Merrill Edge and why some legacy Merrill brokers think it's eating their seed crop

It won $87 billion in brokerage assets in three years, but some old Merrill Lynch vets say it's just pulling emerging accounts away from thems

September 23, 2013 at 6:30 PM

Michael Zeuner, Maria Elena "Mel" Lagomasino and Santiago Ulloa believe they're through the start-up phase of W.E. Family Offices.

GenSpring offshoot poaches four more as it reimagines the service model for UHNW families

With new talent from Bessemer, HSBC, the SEC and -- of course -- GenSpring, W.E. Family offices is betting that putting the client back in charge is really the way to go

September 23, 2013 at 6:29 PM

Under same management, but with a new logo,  Advent lowers the boom on its retired signage.

Advent unveils new logo at its annual San Francisco conference -- after discarding one that failed to elicit a sense of the progressive from RIAs

From signage to stationery to T-shirts to a new tech platform, Advent aims to move past its safe-as-houses reputation and up into the cloud

September 23, 2013 at 6:24 PM

Tyler Winklevoss: If you came to hear us talk about Facebook you came to wrong place.

How the Winklevoss twins disrupted a big NYC hedgie event and distracted from the poor job most hedge funds are doing for clients

In a break from whistle-through-graveyard business as usual, Cameron and Tyler unconvincingly pitched Bitcoin

September 19, 2013 at 5:47 PM

Larry Stybel: Just because you can afford to do it doesn't mean you should do it.

A quick take from a Harvard psychologist on how the obscenely rich can think about passing on a work ethic

Larry Stybel strips it down to neglected and seemingly banal details such as the time parents spend in automobiles with kids

September 19, 2013 at 6:14 AM

Mike Papedis: For reasons unknown, it hasn't translated to movements.

Deal-making momentum is AWOL 'for reasons unknown,' but HighTower Advisors wins an outsource deal with a fresh $500 million Morgan Stanley breakaway

This deal looks pretty normal, but the Alabama sign-on looks like a pioneer in this eerily quiet market

September 18, 2013 at 3:32 AM

Greg Friedman: Junxure Cloud will work for advisors customized for wealth management right from the start.

After years of making Junxure's future more 'cloud'-y, Friedman takes a big stage in Texas to explain

With Salesforce not even slowing to catch its breath, the RIA shows he can fight back in his own way

September 18, 2013 at 3:30 AM

Mark Casady: Before, I was an externally focused CEO, doing acquisitions, focused on getting us public, We weren't as attentive as we could be.

In WSJ article, Mark Casady issues a series of mea culpas and positions LPL as a turnaround story

In the esteemed publication, CEO Mark Casady positions his company and his attitude toward advisors as a turnaround story built on two-hour deadlines

September 17, 2013 at 6:40 PM

Stephen Janachowski: Partnerships are harder than marriages.

With cash and grace, Brouwer & Janachowski attracts another $100 million firm by creating a never-say-retirement home for older RIAs

Using Seton Smoke deal as a template, the $1.1 billion RIA adds a firm helmed by a local 68-year-old

September 17, 2013 at 4:40 AM

Sallie Krawcheck: The difference has been striking.

Word from Sallie Krawchek on where our financial system stands five years after the Lehman crash

Inadequate capital and 'groupthink' were root causes, and it may be wishful thinking to believe either has been addressed with the ready solutions

September 16, 2013 at 10:05 PM

Fielding Miller: There are so many schools and non-profits there. The Northeast is our new focus.

A $103 billion AUA RIA storms TIAA-CREF's Northeast stronghold by poaching a hotshot from a $30-billion RIA in Greenwichland

CAPTRUST's 403(b) assets have jumped 60%, or nearly $5 billion, in AUA in one year and TIAA-CREF's $217 billion of 403(b) assets are still pretty untapped

September 16, 2013 at 5:36 AM

Gregg Robins:  It is true that there was often more 'private' than 'banking,' and Swiss bankers were more often consummate relationship people rather than rigorous bankers.

A former exec of a Swiss private bank offers his insights into the country's wealth management business and what innovations could redefine it

Gregg Robins, most recently head of UBS private banking in Russia, gives front-row insight on his industry's recent challenges but believes more of a Branson-Jobs mentality could shape its future

September 13, 2013 at 6:28 PM

Abby Salameh: I don’t think I have ever seen a successful advisor who didn’t build his or her business by pounding the phones.

One thought for advisors with stagnant practices: Pick up the telephone!

With e-mail, texting, friending, linking-in and tweeting running rampant, the casualty may be the most potent social media of all: voice-to-voice contact

September 13, 2013 at 6:26 PM

Andrew Gonski: It made us commit to a higher level of asset management and risk management.

LPL bags a big Ameriprise advisor-under-RIA after CFA pursuit 'opened my eyes'

The big IBD will share the relationship with a Boston-based OSJ that uses LPL

September 13, 2013 at 6:25 PM

Dan Solin: I think the forces aligned against evidence-based investing are far more powerful than anyone can really appreciate.

The 401(k) industry braces itself for fruits of a CalPERS rethink that reflects a cut-the-crap mentality about active investing

A giant staff of researchers and managers -- not always in accord -- manages $260 billion of assets exerts psychological weight, and active management is losing friends in a place where it once thrived

September 12, 2013 at 8:30 PM

Josh Brown: I knew that if I had kept going in that direction, it would've eventually killed me or at least snuffed out my soul.

The RIA business' most prolific tweeter and blogger unexpectedly suspends activity with a semicryptic letter to his readers

Josh Brown, who's shown us how far and fast you can go by giving something of yourself through social media, is now taking an abrupt timeout for 'projects'

September 10, 2013 at 10:19 PM

Bill Crager: New chapter, full speed.

Envestnet goes back to its un-marketing marketing approach as Marion Asnes (mostly) leaves and her CMO spot gets deleted

On fire, Envestnet will still 'market' through conferences, advertisements and the like but with a more decentralized command structure

September 10, 2013 at 5:40 PM

Prioleau Alexander: Anything they give you beyond a paycheck is a blessing.

What financial advice NextGen needs to hear as they stumble into the Real World

You lived the life of a millionaire on campus, so brace for an initial letdown to avoid the BIG comedown

September 10, 2013 at 5:23 PM

Greg Mech: Increasingly, there's an overemphasis on cross-selling and a lack of transparency in [the wirehouse] space.

How a $2.5 billion Boise RIA will use Merrill Lynch's former SoCal overseer to win the over-sunned of The OC

The former Bank of America market president stepped back into the industry after a two-year hiatus following an epiphany and will be recruiting families, not his former flock of brokers

September 9, 2013 at 5:10 PM

Jeffrey Turner: I'd say it's a victory for Labor and its regs.

DOL credits itself for notable evolution in the 401(k) industry -- not without criticism

The sharks are circling after the Ayres letters caused a furor but one industry leaders says Labor's bureaucrats get a C-minus

September 9, 2013 at 6:38 AM

Ryan Marcus: My job is to bring them to the big dance.

After a head-fake, Royal Bank of Canada shows it's back (or never left) in the RIA game with two NextGen hires

100 brokers have moved to RBC's broker dealer or RIA unit in the last 4 years though some recruiters need convincing that the RIA unit is more than a retention tool

September 5, 2013 at 8:02 PM

Todd Morgan: It wasn't our fault it didn't work out the first time. We would have preferred to stay.

How 3 wealth managers at Goldman Sachs parlayed a $1 billion book of business into a $125-million payday -- after doing it once before for $217 million

Todd Morgan sold his practice to State Street the first time, bought it back and is now selling to an entity partially owned by the National Bank of Canada

September 5, 2013 at 3:37 AM

Joe Nation: CalPERS typically claims a much lower unfunded liability than actually exists--precisely because it assumes a higher-than-justified investment rate of return.

A careful look into whether CalPERS is ticking along or a ticking time bomb

The $270-billion giant seems more grounded after some investing misadventures, but the unfunded-liability horse may be out of the barn

September 4, 2013 at 3:12 AM

Esther Stearns:  I remain committed to that mission.

Why exactly LPL Financial nixed NestWise and how OSJs, once again, may be wagging the big dog

The event is eerily similar to BloombergBlack's full stop, one analyst says, but LPL's story has its own twists, it seems

September 3, 2013 at 5:36 PM

Financial advisors tend to scrutinize articles that point the way to the industry's future.

How 10 articles in August define what RIAs care about

From naked fear in the 401(k) realm to ad campaign overhauls in custody world, advisors read up on big picture information defining their business

September 3, 2013 at 5:35 PM

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