Articles published 3/2020
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Publish date
What RIAs should NOT say to clients during the coronavirus pandemic
This crisis has already spawned insincere cliches, 'Stay safe!', false wisdom and other told-ya-so atrocities that advisors need to stop grabbing for
March 30, 2020 at 4:47 PM
Imperfect social distancing efforts may suffice to save the U.S. economy -- and our 401(k) accounts, says hard data from China's bout with COVID-19
The nation of 1.4 billion people is statistically pretty unscathed -- and its data not so fishy -- suggesting U.S. investors might lean toward optimism
March 27, 2020 at 10:09 PM
Abby Salameh tells how to stay RIA productive amid teens, TikTok and the drooling dogs
The Hightower exec is banished to a New Jersey burb, determined to be a stuck-at-home mom with a Manhattan-office output
March 25, 2020 at 10:08 PM
As the sky falls, Addepar raises $40 million, at least in part because its software was built for rainy-day investors
'Ready' CEO Eric Poirier finds a backer in WestCap, which simultaneously inked a deal for stake in iCapital, the super roll-up of alternative investment platforms
March 25, 2020 at 2:06 AM
Letter to Our Readers: What to think about the unstoppable RIA movement meeting an immovable black swan
For RIAs the roaring 2020s had a feverish first eight weeks until COVID-19 hit a reset button
March 23, 2020 at 11:12 PM
After riding Black Diamond's coattails from near zero to $2 billion of AUM, SMArtX raises $4 million to compete as a 'Vestmark'-model firm
The Jacksonville RIA software firm gave the Palm Beach, Fla. fund manager a shot at the fast-track that worked -- but now the three-year contract is almost up
March 20, 2020 at 7:10 AM
Under withering staff pressure, Walt Bettinger course corrects to shut all Schwab branches and to let Charles Schwab Corp. non-branch employees work from home
The Schwab CEO is also coughing up a $1,000 comp check to each staffer and the company is still contending with makeshift technology to enable employees to work from home, but it may have had a breakthrough today -- making its choices easier
March 19, 2020 at 1:21 AM
As COVID-19 crisis grows, Schwab charts own course, orders office workers to stay put, while Fidelity, other firms urge employees to work from home
Fidelity CEO Abby Johnson tells 45,000 staff to stay home, if possible; Schwab CEO Walt Bettinger says it's neither practical nor technologically feasible for most of his 19,000 staff to telecommute
March 16, 2020 at 4:09 PM
Fidelity Institutional looks like a big TAMP after Mike Durbin removes last internal walls between products and advisors after 'meteoric' 2019 leap; two Fido RIA sales legends depart amid the shift
Rich Policastro and Tom Valverde are out after Fidelity Custody & Clearing assets leap to $2.6 trillion AUA, restructuring gets the credit -- and so restructuring gets extended.
March 13, 2020 at 10:36 PM
Behind the scenes, Ben Harrison's rise to replace Mark Tibergien at Pershing was more shock and awe than a symphonic succession
Harrison's appointment was baked in the cake -- or not -- and Tibergien departed with Swiss-watch precision in Moss Adams-style--or not.
March 13, 2020 at 7:22 AM
Michael Kitces and Adam Birenbaum are now on the same $50-billion Buckingham team after the blogger called the young CEO with a multi-pronged proposal
Kitces is leaving Pinnacle - after 17 years - for fewer conflicts and more opportunity
March 12, 2020 at 1:45 PM
Mark Tibergien sets up Ben Harrison to challenge Schwabitrade with a $150 million cut to Pershing's minimum and millions more to develop Veo-busting technology
The CEO suite hand-off in Jersey City pulls a trigger on a plan to bypass Fidelity's and eventually Schwab's custody units by luring disaffected RIAs.
March 11, 2020 at 7:58 AM
Women can thrive in 'kill-to-eat' RIA culture with good mentors, advocacy and inclusiveness to counter toxicity to innate feminine strengths
Lori Hardwick shares unvarnished thoughts about women's 'voices' falling on 'deaf ears' after joining 75 women to talk about the 'brutal truths' facing them in the RIA business at The Dynasty Women’s Network Event in St Petersburg, Fla.
March 10, 2020 at 8:03 PM
E*Trade, TD Ameritrade and Legg Mason deals look dicier, after share crashes crush market caps of merging firms
Schwab and Morgan Stanley are using their stock as currency; Franklin Resources is buying Legg Mason, mostly with hard cash
March 9, 2020 at 11:22 PM
Pershing finally matches Schwab on zero-fee trades but it offers big incentives to pay a subscription fee to score perks like auto-sweep to in-house Flourish/Stonecastle-type FDIC cash manager
The Jersey City, N.J. custodian is seeking to disrupt custody's Big Three on value and price by giving RIAs a much better cash choice than having it swept to an in-house bank
March 6, 2020 at 3:34 AM
A woman who survived Wall Street's 'liquid lunches' and 'boom, boom rooms' of the 1970s and 1980s weighs in on the Ken Fisher sexism fracas
Maria Marsala is surprised, concerned and ultimately hopeful that the #MeToo movement will finally allow women to thrive in finance
March 5, 2020 at 8:24 PM
The great Mark Tibergien is set to step down from CEO of Pershing Advisor Services to make way for heir apparent Ben Harrison
The RIA custody chief is a tireless and personable leader, consultant and guru who leaves BNY Mellon's RIA custody unit as its mission radically shifts
March 4, 2020 at 4:16 AM
Mincing no words, Vanguard chief economist slams Fed for failure to make hard data the basis of massive rate cut
Roger Aliaga-Diaz says that such a 'rare measure' by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell was likely used 'prematurely' and could send just the 'wrong signal'
March 3, 2020 at 7:23 PM
Addepar hires Advent genius then launches 'Advent Converter' to court the RIAs still on Axys and APX ; PortfolioCenter 'easy button' comes next
The tactic by the Mountain View, Calif. firm and Advent co-founder and code avatar Steve Strand comes a decade after Orion, Black Diamond and Tamarac began feasting on the legacy corpses, but Addepar insists meat remains on the bone.
March 3, 2020 at 5:05 PM
T. Rowe Price takes on the risk of its target date fund retirees outliving their savings -- by jacking up equity exposure even on the glide path
The Baltimore patriarch is using both actuarial and behavioral science as the basis for the contrarian move whose downside is accentuated as coronavirus gives the approach a rough start
