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Articles published 4/2017


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Noah Kerner: We respect what Wealthfront has created but Acorns has a very different customer and product roadmap.

As Acorns grapples with monetizing 1.1 million micro-accounts, the laid-back LA robo-advisor brings Wealthfront’s former chief exec onto its board

After this week's $1.3-billion Robinhood valuation, the sheer quantity of Acorn accounts may count for plenty in VC estimations

April 28, 2017 at 9:50 PM

Drew Sievers: We're the digital advice solution for FIS now and that's a really big deal.

After VC personally supplants CEO, Trizic raises $3.3 million, signs online octopus and begins to shed perception that it squandered a lead

Drew Sievers invested $1 million in the robo-advisor then took the place of CEO Brad Matthews, who admits it's been for the better as he became a father at 38

April 27, 2017 at 10:39 PM

Randy Bullard: I'm sober but not jaded.

Randy Bullard pitches himself into major role at SigFig to add his Placemark knowledge to a robo hothouse

The serially successful wrap-program pioneer convinced CEO Mike Sha that he was the right guy to demystify the legacy-robo tech divide to employees -- and close deals

April 26, 2017 at 5:41 PM

Andy Rachleff (as quoted in the NY Post): If you don’t read the disclosure, you don’t get confused about it.

Andy Rachleff makes waves with NY Post quote: Don't get 'hung up' on our lose-more-funds-than-you-deposit disclosure

Fresh off blasting BlackRock, the feisty Wealthfront CEO claims he was 'misrepresented' as the robo offers ready credit lines for those with $100K-plus in taxable accounts

April 25, 2017 at 9:06 PM

Christopher Van Slyke: That pricing is very persuasive. As fiduciaries we'd have to consider TDA the favorite.

DFA and TD Ameritrade strike 'strategic' deal with potential to shift RIA custody power axis

Tension in the three-way relationship between Fidelity, Dimensional Fund Advisors and the RIAs who use both vendors creates opening for Tim Hockey

April 24, 2017 at 6:33 PM

John Bunch became No. 2 man at the No. 1 robo-advisor for his human bandwidth.

John Bunch climbs high at Financial Engines as two execs vacate power spots and rollover retail gets accorded higher priority

Former TD retail chief's rise shows what Larry Raffone has in mind for old Mutual Fund Store machinery as Raffone works to make his mark at Financial Engines

April 20, 2017 at 10:43 PM

Karen Barr: People know that in the sales process you're not acting in their best interests.

RIA lobby fires off letter to DOL claiming rules aimed at reining in overzealous stockbroker sales pitches chill RIA conversations with their prospects

The IAA's letter to the Labor Department asks that RIAs not get entangled in rules designed to prevent stockbrokers from making misleading pitches

April 20, 2017 at 5:16 PM

Rudy Adolf: A key reason for our partnership is the vision we share for continued growth.

Stone Point and KKR buy Focus Financial for $2 billion by employing massive leverage

PE giants with loans of about $1 billion -- psyched that the roll-up's roll flow is snowballing in 2017 -- cash out Centerbridge, Polaris, Summit, several advisors and employees

April 19, 2017 at 4:39 AM

Mike Sha: Wells is a big beast. With scale comes challenges.

Wells Fargo's new ADV reveals plenty about its robo's ambitions to max cross-selling and minimize channel conflict

Intuitive Investor is priced on the high side and bars micro-investors, yet is positioning itself as the anti-niche player

April 18, 2017 at 6:24 PM

Joel Bruckenstein: I turn and think to myself this guy looks a lot like Marco Rubio.

Joel Bruckenstein pitches DOL rule to Sen. Marco Rubio after fate makes them JetBlue seat mates

Rubio opened up on small investors and retirement issues -- and cracked wise about the Russians

April 17, 2017 at 6:38 PM

Sagar Kurada: Our new facility will allow HighTower to fund additional acquisitions.

HighTower picks up $6.4-billion roll-up on the cheap but the valuation may reflect WealthTrust's stagnant growth and profitability

The Chicago roll-up gets an embattled league of RIAs for about $70 million by persuading its financiers to double down and private equity owners to suck it up

April 13, 2017 at 11:35 PM

Jon Stein, flanked by Maureen Thompson of CFA and Betterment associate counsel Seth Rosenbloom, marking the envisaged starting day of the DOL rule.

After putting big chips on DOL fiduciary rule, Betterment hosts funereal event to mark the April 10 Go Day That Wasn't

CEO Jon Stein sat shoulder to shoulder with CFP Board and Consumer Federation of America guests and held court with CNNMoney, Wall Street Journal and Consumer Reports reporters

April 13, 2017 at 6:50 PM

Benjamin Halliburton: We were scrambling.

TD Ameritrade shocks RIAs most accustomed to its largesse with a letter, a contract and a tight deadline to sign

The Jersey City, N.J.-based custodian tells RIAs to accept new terms on branch referrals or be terminated from the program

April 12, 2017 at 4:08 AM

Eli Broverman: I love the formative period.

Betterment's 'call me a masochist' co-founder goes in search of more acute pain and Jon Stein flies solo

Eli Broverman leaves the table 14 years after meeting Jon Stein over a poker game

April 10, 2017 at 10:24 PM

Kevin Knull: Despite frigid temperatures, an old sports injury, and fluid in my lungs from acute mountain sickness, we made it to the summit in 6 hours and 9 minutes.

Talent exodus at MoneyGuidePro revealed by posting from Mount Kilimanjaro includes two Knulls

The big execu-shuffle may reflect influx of power players into the business of financial planning software -- perhaps hottest of RIA technology categories

April 7, 2017 at 8:03 PM

Dashing to catch a plane, Pershing's Lisa Dolly updated me on the company's COO search. ​

The 10 takeaways Chip Roame imparted at his Tiburon CEO Summit in NYC and other items I gleaned by gumshoe reporting

From the Battery Ritz common space, disembodied text and email recipients appear in human form

April 6, 2017 at 5:26 PM

Marcia Wagner: [It] essentially eliminates the need for transition agreements, disclosures and certain structural changes -- such as the appointment of a BICE officer -- that were formerly required to be in place on the applicability date.

'Poof, it's gone!' DOL quietly strips two heavy lifts from the fiduciary rule as it makes delay official

The Department of Labor effectively makes the 60-day delay into a 270-day one as part of document that was supposed to only formalize the postponement until June 7

April 5, 2017 at 7:41 PM

Joe Cianciolo [with Simon Roy]: The future is the next five to 10 years. The millennials don't have that much money.

Why FutureAdvisor orphaned its B2C book of business, how post-Invesco Jemstep is doing and other learnings at CFA Society's robo-panel in San Francisco

Since BlackRock acquired it, the $152-million robo has gone full-on for big enterprises with big books of boomers and joined a chorus of robo-owners sick of millennial bullcrap

April 4, 2017 at 5:38 PM

Scott Smith: Sophisticated investors will realize that saving $5 against 40 or 50 basis points for the total expenses for the year isn't a savings.

Why ProShares yanked ETFs from Schwab's no-commission OneSource ETF exchange

The fund firm puts faith in the drawing power of its own brand -- and saves more than $2 million

April 3, 2017 at 7:04 PM

Ron Rhoades: Will the President lead, instead of just blindly following the Wall Street insiders he surrounded himself with?

Donald Trump sends flurry of pro-DOL rule tweets early on Saturday that astound RIAs

Ron Rhoades admits he is 'absolutely stunned' at POTUS' fiduciary advocacy on Twitter -- perhaps the product of a chance golf course encounter that sparked the meeting of minds

April 2, 2017 at 8:39 PM

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