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Articles published 10/2016


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Andy Rachleff: I realized that instead of spending less time with the company, I actually want to spend more.

Andy Rachleff takes back CEO spot at Wealthfront at critical juncture

Adam Nash bows out after overseeing growth to $4.5 billion of AUM

October 31, 2016 at 11:34 PM

Mike Alfred (with brother Ryan, l.): It's pretty magical to get to build something from scratch and to experience the whole journey with family by your side.

Buyer scoops up BrightScope using Genstar's bucks

The once-brash Alfred brothers sought out Strategic Insight as DOL rule came thundering toward their 401(k) herd

October 31, 2016 at 10:04 PM

David Amster: It’s an art form.

Chatting with David Amster as he joins a compliance risk firm in 'crowded' industry just as the DOL storm makes shore

Cutting his teeth at Salomon Bros., as a FINRA examiner and then UBS fixed-income compliance guy, Amster brings a portfolio of perspectives to the roiling sector -- but don't call him a consultant

October 31, 2016 at 6:27 PM

Walt Bettinger (with Bernie Clark): It’s fairly safe to say that most of the rest are available for the right check.

As Bernie Clark and Walt Bettinger go on offense, LPL and Wells Fargo names get named and a B2C robo dry-up gets foretold at Schwab IMPACT in San Diego

The Schwab CEO, buoyed by his robo, robust quarterly results and DOL fallout at competitors is on offense -- a state of being RIAs can relate to

October 28, 2016 at 6:41 PM

Right to left: Karen Barr; Joel Bruckenstein; Beverly Flaxington; Brian Hamburger, Philip Palaveev, David Canter.

eMoney form inspires Fidelity function in NYC that serves up a familiar menu with fine garnish

Philip Palaveev, not for the first time, kept Fidelity’s Inside Track conference as sparkly as its ballroom

October 27, 2016 at 7:44 PM

Bob Oros: The secret sauce is the planning dimension.

How Fidelity's robo for RIAs 'leapfrogged' rivals -- and why the landing might not stick

Fidelity weaves in eMoney wizardry to its super-bot but Geode's presence as de facto CIO stops some RIAs in their tracks

October 26, 2016 at 5:39 PM

Wayne Bloom: Are you going to sit around and hope? You can't do that.

Commonwealth Financial to dump commission business for IRA and 401(k) accounts

Overcoming a 'challenging decision culturally,' Wayne Bloom pulls the trigger ahead of IBD rivals for his Waltham, Mass.-based broker-dealer

October 24, 2016 at 10:47 PM

Bill Rourke: You don't need a program to make it work. Everyone else is doing APIs. We're doing connections.

Advent's parent buys Salentica to bolster Black Diamond CRM

SS&C promised to buy David Welling lots of M&A toys to sweeten his firm's Black Diamond offering and now the big Salesforce-Microsoft reseller begins to fulfill that promise

October 24, 2016 at 2:48 PM

Dan Seivert: While past years consisted mostly of RIAs, this year we expanded the content to attract a broader set of participants and executives.

Coming RIA custody fees and a new recruiting war catch the attention of deal hounds in Manhattan

At ECHELON event at NYAC, action items aplenty assaulted attendees -- especially with Apr. 30 looming

October 21, 2016 at 9:49 PM

Doug Flynn: New management brings in its own coaches.

LPL Financial share price tumbles to pre-hostile bid levels in atmosphere of eerie calm

LPL reps shrug their shoulders over a possible sale and investors seem in no hurry to buy but experts say the B-D has what PE loves -- lousy growth but terrific cash flow

October 21, 2016 at 6:57 PM

Jeff Remming: We saw the ineffectiveness of PortfolioCenter itself after a few years but there weren't many choices back then.

Orion lands $27-billion AUM account as BAM Alliance phases out its homemade system built on Schwab PortfolioCenter

The choice of the Omaha-based, open-source system by the giant DFA TAMP reflects the diverse needs of 140 RIAs -- and the need to up-robo client experience

October 20, 2016 at 3:47 PM

Andy Sieg could preside over commission elimination for brokers handling non-retirement investments.

Using DOL as cover, Bank of America cuts the Merrill Lynch bull as it adds a robo, stops paying brokers to stick around and kicks John Thiel upstairs

The Charlotte, N.C.-based lending giant bagged the Wall Street beast in 2009 when the price was right -- now it's cutting off its traditional food supply

October 18, 2016 at 10:41 PM

Ashley Curtis: We should take into account that there is a return also on indulging the present satisfaction.

Why love has everything to do with the next frontier in financial planning and our relationship to money

Swiss philosopher Ashley Curtis validates grandma's folk wisdom about money by way of Harvard, Yale and Kitces

October 17, 2016 at 8:11 PM

Ken Weber: We’ve always portrayed Fidelity ... as the guys in the white hats. This puts splotches on the white hats.

After Fidelity Investments and its owners get blasted by Reuters for alleged high-level conflicts of interest, Morningstar accepts the Boston-based giant's explanation

Fidelity says it was misrepresented, Reuters stands by its story and a Fidelity forever RIA urges the venerable Boston firm to apply a quick coat of Scotch Guard to its white hat

October 14, 2016 at 5:55 PM

John Wotowicz: You have to build brick by brick.

Tiburon CEO Summit goes high as talk turns to FANG factor on days one and two

The once-dismissed prospect that Facebook, Amazon and Google could enter wealth management was back on the front burner as advice business chiefs gathered and Google contributed to a panel

October 12, 2016 at 10:44 PM

Mark Casady may seek a sale but the big question is who will buy?

LPL is for sale -- in whole or part -- and Wells Fargo at least makes the list of potential buyers

Goldman Sachs, which led the IPO, is now shopping its baby even as hedge funds swarm, Reuters says

October 11, 2016 at 8:58 PM

Jasen Yang: BlackRock knows that if they can get regulators to put up more requirements ... then the barrier to entry into the robo business will go up.

BlackRock solicits more regulator scrutiny of robo-advisors, eliciting jeers and a cheer

The near $5-trillion asset manager makes its case for why the robo game is best left to the big boys as critics suggest FutureAdvisor's owner is proposing a solution in search of a problem

October 11, 2016 at 3:46 PM

Brian Hamburger: None of the new rules, even the proposed ones, will be crippling to your business.

Brian Hamburger plays the heavy on DOL rules at Ray Jay's national RIA event in St. Petersburg and goes light on fear-mongering

The MarketCounsel CEO had good news as RJ's Bill Van Law let RIAs know that the Alex. Brown deal brings alternative investment choices, services for the UHNW market, new lending offerings and multicurrency capabilities

October 10, 2016 at 6:41 PM

Seth Rosenbloom: It was in process long before the Massachusetts stuff came to light.

Why robo-advisors meet the lofty fiduciary standard when so few humans can, according to an opinion written by Betterment's outside counsel

Automated advisors only know you so well -- but it's enough and you know exactly what you're getting, says a paper written by Morgan Lewis attorneys

October 7, 2016 at 2:11 PM

Venus Williams (with Sallie Krawcheck looking on): I wanted to become involved because I believed in Sallie. (Photo credit: LinkedIn)

With $9 million in second-round VC bucks from Venus and friends on the books, Ellevest's AUM remains ground bound

Sallie Krawcheck has yet to bring her infectious hold on fellow UHNW women to mass affluent women and their expensively long life spans

October 6, 2016 at 7:44 PM

Brent Brodeski: We just kind of cut the middleman out.

How Brent Brodeski 'cut the middleman out' to get a no-strings $50 million for succession nirvana

Needing to cash out retiring partners, Savant Capital's CEO thought he needed to sell his $4.7B RIA -- 70 'conversations' later he met the potential moneymen

October 5, 2016 at 5:55 PM

Aaron Schumm: I had the luxury of working with 100,000 advisors and hearing what they needed to help their business.

Two years after the $199 million FolioDynamix sale, Aaron Schumm jumps back in the B2B RIA game but not to compete -- yet

Staked to $4.5M of F-Prime and FinTech Collective cash, Vestwell will stay in 401(k) for now but roll its business model over soon enough to IRAs

October 4, 2016 at 6:22 PM

Peter Raimondi:  There was never a culture clash between Boston Private Wealth and me.

Non-competed out of starting another RIA (for now), Peter Raimondi becomes an M&A guy 18 months after the giant Banyan merger

Raimondi, a maverick who is now a staffer at Gladstone Associates, gives his side about a rumored culture clash after his roll-up was rolled up by another

October 3, 2016 at 5:54 PM

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