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Articles published 2/2016


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Jud Bergman: The biggest thing was the repricing due to the WMS client. That's the biggest single factor.

With Envestnet shares deeply depressed, analysts cut Jud Bergman little slack on 4Q earnings call

WIth a not-yet-integrated Yodlee, trouble with a big client, Lori Hardwick's departure and a recent history of muddy communication, CEO Jud Bergman worked hard to reassure

February 29, 2016 at 6:09 PM

Under founder and CEO Robert Jesenik, Aequitas Capital expanded into private equity, wealth management and consumer-, student- and commercial-debt companies.

The unbelievable series of missteps that sent Aequitas, its RIA clients and their investors, reeling

Firms as disparate as CONCERT Wealth and CliftonLarsenAllen seem to have gotten caught up in the implosion of Oregon-based Aequitas Capital Partners and plaintiffs' attorneys are yelling 'Ponzi'

February 26, 2016 at 6:47 PM

Susan Theder may be that final feminine piece of the puzzle in Lightyear-izing Advisor Group

Valerie Brown re-poaches Cetera's Susan Theder cueing up AIG female trifecta

The Advisor Group executive chairman grabs her old chief marketing officer who had managed the unmanageable 'Cetera' brand and connected with advisors

February 25, 2016 at 8:46 PM

Knut Rostad: A new group could help stimulate much-needed changes .... I don't presume for a second they will.

In rebuke of Wall Street, Raymond James, William Blair and Stifel help form non-wirehouse advocacy group to 'shed baggage' but not without a suitcase of SIFMA ideals

American Securities Association proclaims a fresh 'voice' but for now seems to be a rebel with a cryptic cause

February 24, 2016 at 10:44 PM

Margaret Hartigan:  We are now in the next phase which is identifying and onboarding our first customers.

As Pershing struggles to get a robo firmly fixed in the RIA frame, NextCapital rushes in to blur the picture

The Chicago 401(k) robo will use Pershing custody to go after the retail market and Pershing has hopes it'll work with its mega-RIAs

February 23, 2016 at 9:25 PM

.Bernie Clark: We're quite proud of that [$1 trillion].

Why Schwab execs are 'proud' of holding at $1-trillion custody mark first achieved in 2013 -- and what makes them pleased with its existing 25% RIA custody market share

Candidly canvassing 2015 dings -- including a $12 billion RIA defection -- Walt Bettinger seems at peace with vigilantly guarding Schwab's mighty quarter of the RIA asset pie

February 22, 2016 at 6:43 PM

Michael Glowacki: You say, 'this is my succession plan' and they say, 'you sold me!'

How Rob Francais is convincing RIAs to sign on the dotted line with Aspiriant -- no money down

The CEO of the $9 billion RIA grabbed nearly $1 billion of AUM from Hokanson and Glowacki with stock swaps

February 19, 2016 at 8:35 PM

Tom McCarthy: With this capability, advisors will no longer need traditional portfolio accounting systems anymore.

What exactly to make of Fidelity's WealthScape and whether it's the bull in the third-party-equilibrium China shop

Calling it multicustody may be a stretch but the firm is determined to compete head-on with its own performance reporting software

February 17, 2016 at 10:34 PM

Terri Kallsen: Clients need you, they need to see you, they need to talk with you. So only 50% of our clients are currently in an assigned practice where they are getting that regular conversation.

Schwab's grand plan to alleviate its 300-to-1 customer-to-advisor crunch gets indefinitely shelved

The San Francisco-based broker has also toned down its talk of branch expansion -- even as Fidelity, at 190 centers, gains on Schwab

February 16, 2016 at 8:45 PM

Fidelity's Ed O'Brien, backed by a 30-strong army of staffers, unveiled a bundling app geared toward planning, not investing.

How tech vendors pierced the glare generated by Fidelity's uni-bundle to get their message in edgewise to 650 advisors at T3

Apt metaphors for the state of the RIA business included a giant alarm clock and an actual drone delivering financial advice in the time of robo

February 16, 2016 at 7:19 PM

 Amy Parvaneh: I carefully selected even personal vacations and retreats focusing on destinations where I could anticipate brushing up against prospective clients. I fly first class to meet its patrons.

In her words: A former Goldman Sachs star gets into the depths of winning UHNW clients, without being in that tax bracket

Amy Parvaneh channels love, permeable walls of personal and business and 'Rocky' stories' as a fuel for a no-excuses mindset

February 15, 2016 at 7:47 PM

Chris Harris: I'm not sure why then you'd buy so much stock ahead of that trend, as opposed to waiting until after the fact and then you'd have all kinds of dry powder.

Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo analysts ask unobsequious questions as LPL shares fall below 2005 private equity levels and Mark Casady pleads the 'Spanish Inquisition' defense

LPL Financial's CFO Matthew Audette promises to put brakes on buybacks after decision to spend $250 million on them in December proves ill-conceived

February 12, 2016 at 10:05 PM

Lori Hardwick elicits streams of superlatives from the industry.

Completing matriarchal coup, Pershing raids Envestnet's top drawer to grab Lori Hardwick, whom many thought unpoachable

Pershing's top two executives are now women with Lisa Dolly being replaced as COO by another dynamo

February 11, 2016 at 7:45 PM

Perry Olson extracted Atherton from Portola, built it up, and, nine years later, is now selling it to BNY Mellon.

What about the 49ers, Palo Alto experiment and China led a $2.7 billion RIA to sell out, brand and all, to BNY Mellon

BNY Mellon ends up buying RIA -- and paying an extraction fee to Schwab -- after building nearby Palo Alto 6,800-square-ft. branch

February 10, 2016 at 7:40 PM

Lisa Dolly is no-nonsense but far from rigid, according to people who have worked with her.

Why Pershing's CEO pick looks uninspired, and why that look may be deceiving

LIsa Dolly is a rare 'lifer' in a transient industry but those who know the clearing giant's first woman leader say her entrepreneurial spirit and decades at Pershing make her an inspired choice

February 8, 2016 at 11:35 PM

Tom Nally: The perception [is] that RIAs are operating in the Wild, Wild West. As a result, we need to take this issue off of the table.

With Veo Village hive buzzing in background, Tom Nally rides herd on RIA 'Wild West' threats at vibrant LINC 2016

The laptop guys in another room won plaudits as the TD RIA custody chief counseled RIAs to embrace more practice audits and communicate more by story, less by Orwell

February 8, 2016 at 7:07 PM

Steve Janachowski: I don't take the phone calls or I wouldn't get anything done.

Why only 10% of elite RIAs are receptive to fund wholesalers yet depend on a handful of good ones

Fund wholesalers say the research based on the FT 300 distorts reality and RIAs admit liking what wholesalers provide under the right conditions

February 6, 2016 at 12:27 AM

Naureen Hassan's departure from Schwab did not necessitate a replacement nor did she take anyone's place at Morgan Stanley -- unless you want to say she replaced Greg Fleming.

What exactly to make of Morgan Stanley poaching robo-talent Naureen Hassan from Schwab on the heels of Greg Fleming's departure

Sure she brings the Schwab robo playbook -- albeit the Reader's Digest version -- but insiders say Jim Rosenthal may have bigger reins for her to take

February 4, 2016 at 9:56 PM

Mike Durbin: You get investment in your business because you prove that you're delivering a return for it. And I feel like we're doing that.

After years of work to gain parity with Schwab RIA custody, Fidelity is ready to show fruits of its $250 million move to gain an edge

With ex-Schwabbie Bob Oros in RIA charge, Mike Durbin as leapfrogger-in-chief, and Sanjiv Mirchandani at the big desk, the Boston-based custody division is set to launch its new technology platform

February 3, 2016 at 7:46 PM

Terri Kallsen oversees Schwab's efforts to more than double its force of FAs.

Terri Kallsen sold 15,469 shares of Schwab stock but did she also sell short her own vision?

Schwab's head of retail dumped more than half her company stock exactly a year after becoming retail chief with bold goals

February 1, 2016 at 10:57 PM

 Mark Egan: Holding brokers to a fiduciary standard over the period 2008-2012 would have increased investor returns by as much as 2.73% per annum.

Part II: Tick, tick ... How FINRA tramples on 'settled' principles of the Supreme Court, and even Adam Smith, in its sanctification of two-hatted advice

The 'best interests' standard of the stock cop ignores classical arm's-length principles, of economics and the law, implicit to the entrusting of care to professionals by evoking wonders of bare-knuckles capitalism

February 1, 2016 at 8:13 PM

ETF.com's Dave Nadig [l.] warned that unchecked growth could exacerbate liquidity issues in the high-yield bond market.

An advertiser's chats from the Inside ETFs event and the Vanguard-versus-the-world chess match they depict

Ebullience born of dreams of a bright future for the ETF channel infused the crowd of 2,000 in South Miami

February 1, 2016 at 6:03 PM

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