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RIABiz

Articles published 11/2013


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Steve Huxley: Today, over 4,000 bond funds exist, meaning 97% of all bond fund managers have been enjoying an environment of terrific total returns buoyed by falling rates over the past 30 years.

How interest rates have rolled since the first Thanksgiving and why the 'new normal' under Yellen seems destined to last

The Pilgrims probably paid 12-18% to finance their new lives (lucky for us they took the risk)

November 28, 2013 at 4:53 AM

Scott Leonard, wife Mandi and sons Luke 7, Jake, 11, and Griffin, 13: The business has no purpose other than to satisfy my personal goals. If my personal need was to go sailing, then I consider the trip a net gain.

Where Scott Leonard's life stands after serving his RIA clients mostly from sea for 2 1/2 years, what cut his trip short and what was most unexpected

The odyssey took a $200-million-in-AUM toll in addition to a partner split and Leonard, 45, still faces, psychologically, the task of building a business from 'scratch'

November 27, 2013 at 6:09 AM

Stuart DePina: They wanted to find a reach into the RIA channel and they placed their bet on Tamarac to make that happen.

Envestnet struts upmarket stuff by signing a $1.5-billion, a $3.3-billion, a $2.3-billion and a $4-billion RIA to big technology deals

Post-Tamarac acquisition and bolstering, the Chicago-based king of SMAs to IBDs poached accounts from the likes of The Colony Group, Henssler Financial, Laird Norton, RegentAtlantic from legacy RIA providers

November 25, 2013 at 9:13 PM

Rajeev Sharan: I function as a market ‘shock absorber’ for clients.

Two 'super RIAs' -- Aspiriant and Salient -- hire risk officers in a sign of what clients value post-2008-'09, post-Madoff

In the post-Madoff era, explicit downside is becoming more important -- and lets Aspiriant justify its $7,500 planning fee better

November 24, 2013 at 8:45 PM

Jon Stein: There are situations where technology -- algorithms may be a better way of saying it—are more effective that a human advisor would be.

Betterment's Jon Stein talks human-RIA coopetition but breathes fire about fellow online RIAs

The 34 year-old CEO sees 300-fold growth to $100 billion, partially fueled by classic RIAs, and not much competition from Wealthfront and the like

November 22, 2013 at 6:29 PM

Christopher Van Slyke: From day one (in 2007), when we merged, he told me he was going to go sailing.

Scott Leonard's 2-1/2-year boat odyssey around the world is followed by split with his partner

Christopher Van Slyke realized Trovena was presented with fast-arising opportunities he couldn't pursue with Leonard at sea

November 22, 2013 at 5:47 PM

Franklin Tsung (with Tim Welsh to his right and Andy Wang to his left) : This puts the direct purchase option out of reach for the average advisor.

Salesforce rolls out giant product, pricing changes -- a virtual doubling for the direct-sold version that could price out some mainstream RIA practices

As part of a big revamping, Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff will make CRM work on mobile but it may now cost twice as much for the comparable direct-sold product

November 21, 2013 at 3:38 AM

Tom Livergood: Everyone is grappling with the issue.

Why a disconnect between reporting software and advisors to UHNW assets persists -- and what makes the problem so thorny

Many big-time wealth managers are plagued by their own foibles, their clients' peculiar challenges and third-parties who haven't quite gotten a handle on the challenges

November 19, 2013 at 8:05 PM

Chris Romano: We don't even consider trading away at Fidelity because of the high ticket trade away fee.

RIA custodians charge steep new ETF-related fees that can range into the tens of thousands of dollars for big trades and advisors are working to deal with them

Schwab, Fido, TD and Pershing are all in on these 'trade-away' fees and claim they simply are defraying costs of manual labor -- but RIAs aren't so sure

November 18, 2013 at 10:35 PM

Adri Miller-Heckman:  It's hard to find a woman who got into it who says: I got into this to make a shit load of money.

Long the underdogs, female advisors are actually winning in two important categories, a study based on $3.5 trillion of AUM shows

Trust is where women -- especially with their own gender -- gain the upper hand, the PriceMetrix study concludes

November 18, 2013 at 1:00 PM

Waltham is in the Boston wealth belt -- close enough to the Hub but far enough away to spread out in a glassy building.

A $1.2-billion RIA is born on the Rt. 128 altar as two $600-million-AUM firms -- one in hyper-growth mode by Fidelity referrals -- get hitched

Spawned from an away breakfast, the deal of Argent Wealth Management and Pillar Financial Advisors financed a succession, forestalled death on the vine and set the stage for accelerated growth

November 15, 2013 at 8:25 PM

Adam Bold: What if the casual observer isn't able to discern what one franchisee does versus another.

Alleging gambling habits, SEC concerns and steady AUM declines, The Mutual Fund Store is offering $5.5 million to Jeff Roper to sell and walk away

What Adam Bold wants, he says, is to force a settlement to keep the reputational fire from spreading out of control

November 14, 2013 at 8:39 PM

Departed Schwab retail advisors protested the firm's termination policies on the first day of IMPACT.

Schwab IMPACT 2013 is another great bash but picketers and Fidelity siphoned off some precious RIA attention

Attendees were greeted by disgruntled ex-Schwab advisors chanting 'Find out how Schwab terminates' and Fidelity's RIA campaign jumped out at you on every sidewalk

November 14, 2013 at 6:32 AM

Jonathan Blau: We never knew there was a way to partner with someone like Dynasty.

Dynasty Financial leads a second $1 billion-range team -- now Fidelity RIA -- out of Wall Street in as many weeks

Fusion Family Wealth LLC presumed the economics of buying top research wasn't there -- but was shown otherwise

November 13, 2013 at 7:07 PM

Mary Jo White: Anytime you've got the same conduct regulated differently you need to take a close look and see what you should do.

After starring in New Yorker article, Mary Jo White holds SIFMA event spellbound and 'no-admit, no-deny' is still in play

The muscular prosecutor of security fraud and terrorism cases delivered roses -- and maybe some thorns

November 13, 2013 at 5:03 PM

Lloyd Blankfein: A job like this is hard to come by.

The 8 things I learned about Lloyd Blankfein at the SIFMA confab when he was grilled by Politico

The Goldman Sachs chief used artifice to boost himself and his company and stayed appealingly accessible all the while

November 13, 2013 at 6:50 AM

Neesha Hathi is striving for 'one-step publishing.'

Schwab unveils 'Project PM' at IMPACT -- a 'new vision' for using the company's data to fuel PortfolioCenter

The 'next-generation portfolio management system' takes data cleanliness into a godliness realm but competitors and observers offer sharp criticism of the plan -- and its mushy deadline for completion

November 12, 2013 at 5:10 AM

Mike Durbin: I won't be threatened until one of these folks wakes up and decides to be a custodian or a clearing firm. I don't find that to be a near- or medium-term risk.

Part II: RIA custodians' answer to challenges to their monolithic control: We still have big-time scale advantages

Roll-ups and other mezzanine firms are squeezing RIA custody margins as a value proposition but the big-brand custodians -- and some new ones -- are liking the cards they have to play

November 11, 2013 at 6:53 AM

Bernie Clark will ask for questions. Please oblige him.

10 questions for RIAs to ask Neesha Hathi, Bernie Clark and Walt Bettinger at Schwab IMPACT 2013 in DC

Speeches by outside experts seem less important when Schwab itself, as Mother Ship, is in such a state of flux as it rushes to win HNW investors for its own RIA account

November 9, 2013 at 12:01 PM

Pat Allen: Wholesalers will work their top 250 or so and Marketing needs to work the rest.

As mutual fund wholesaler economics get squeezed, mutual fund CMOs find best new friend -- online advertising

Web banners, other digitial media, are proving cheaper, more targeted, more accountable and more digitized making them good substitutes for wholesalers to smaller accounts

November 8, 2013 at 8:55 PM

Sallie Krawcheck: You don’t want to be learning about your financial situation while you’re in shock.

The top 10 financial mistakes women make

A wife needs to be sure not to get talked past in a husband-wife sit-down with a financial advisor

November 8, 2013 at 6:43 AM

Justin Wisz (r.): There is an incredible opportunity for advisors to use digital channels to generate leads for their businesses.

Joel Bruckenstein convenes a wholesale version of T3 for IBD execs who choose software for thousands of reps

In his usual no-frills style, the technology guru brought together 200 broker-dealers and tech execs where airplanes thunder in Chicago

November 7, 2013 at 7:02 PM

Gurinder Ahluwalia: The advisors are excited for us. Now they want to see what comes from this.

'AssetMark' rides again as a $20-billion TAMP with a receding Genworth hangover

Private-equity owners take two months to ditch the 'Genworth Financial Wealth Management' moniker and hope to find the old spark

November 7, 2013 at 5:57 PM

Larry Deatherage: We could find 500 other participants who would counteract what was said on 'Frontline.'

How an LPL-owned 401(k) afterthought zoomed from $6.5 billion to $10 billion with help from reps -- and thinking big

The former NRP duo demurred overtures three years ago from wirehouses and big competitors and now counts Qualcomm, Petco and In-N-Out burger as clients

November 7, 2013 at 5:53 PM

Andy Gill: We believe we'll continue to attract affluent clients at an accelerated pace.

Schwab drops pretense: $2-million clients its staple branch diet in bid for fresh $2 trillion

The San Francisco-based broker has named its composite perfect ideal client 'Tobin' -- representing a graying, masculine entreprenuer

November 5, 2013 at 6:07 AM

Jeff Roper: It's hundreds of pages for millions of dollars.

The Mutual Fund Store sues its own mega-franchisee to force sale of three stores

Franchisee Jeff Roper says he's good on the price and terms but still not comfortable about the 'hundreds of pages' accompanying the term sheet

November 5, 2013 at 12:14 AM

Hal Lambert: You're viewed as a $15-billion firm.

Pershing, Dynasty and Envestnet gang-tackle Credit Suisse and jolt loose $1 billion duo

Hal Lambert and Jeff Wildin held their breakaway fire for several years until they could get all the capabilities -- and keep 100% ownership

November 4, 2013 at 2:56 PM

Jason Lahita: I remember hesitating, dancing in place as I considered the threat, in the span of seconds.

What I experienced as a passenger in LAX when the bullets started to fly

The reality sunk in more as I stood with a TSA agent with blood on his ankle

November 2, 2013 at 7:01 AM

Terry Hong is working out bugs and drinking coffee.

RIABiz launches its redesigned 'responsive' website

After our Terence Hong dismissed the notion of an RIABiz app as so 2012, we go with a go-anywhere technology

November 1, 2013 at 7:05 PM

Mark Tibergien in Part II: The balance of power has shifted to advisors, regardless of whether they are on a broker-dealer platform or a custody platform.

Part I: Is the era of the monolithic RIA custodian coming to an end?

RIAs, small custodians, co-ops, study groups, roll-ups, TAMPs, compliance shops, OSJ and IBDs are all chipping away at much of what fit under the roofs of Schwab, Fidelity, TD and Pershing

November 1, 2013 at 4:51 PM

Gary Gallagher: By no means do we consider this watered-down alternatives in any way. We think it's the most comprehensive of all of the custodians in business today.

Fidelity teams with Goldman Sachs as part of big push into alternative investments on behalf of RIAs

The Boston giant's resolute move is a 'blue-ocean' strategy that may give it an edge with advisors looking for a one-stop, one-statement approach to AI management

November 1, 2013 at 4:50 PM

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