Articles published 4/2020
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Amid pandemic, Wealthfront's risk parity fund faces rough stretch, reviving questions about the wisdom of a 'millennial' robo using something as 'Wall Street' as leverage and active management
The $20-billion Redwood City, Calif. firm walks fine line between being anti-Wall Street and dabbling in leveraged active investments that COVID-19 markets have hit hard.
April 30, 2020 at 9:57 PM
Schwab Advisor Services takes EXPLORE, IMPACT and SOLUTIONS 'virtual' in face of COVID-19 pandemic, updates merger, and makes clear the two scheduling details are unrelated
Set to be held in Fidelity's Boston backyard, IMPACT 2020 will move to the ether, making it one of the industry's premier virtual conferences in a sure sign the RIA world has dramatically changed.
April 29, 2020 at 6:41 PM
Jeff Concepcion and Howard Milstein combine to take dead aim at COVID-distressed RIA market -- putting youthful executive energies and a billionaire's capital on a bold path
Both the Stratos Wealth CEO and the owner of Emigrant Bank are known to be conservative in RIA circles, but together -- shooting for upper-strata firms with as much as $750 million -- they are showing uncharacteristic opportunism.
April 24, 2020 at 8:37 PM
US economy and stock markets have hit a post-COVID 'rock bottom,' and smartphone data show a stealthy mini-recovery is developing
Sheltering in place was the commerce killer but after Easter, people got hopping again, according to data from their smartphones
April 23, 2020 at 9:12 PM
After much acclaim but not enough profits, Motif shutters and sells itself off for parts with Folio buying the RIA and retail accounts
The $850 million stock-basket company in San Mateo, Calif. had success but -- $126 million invested by Goldman Sachs, Renren and Sallie Krawcheck and others -- not enough to justify business as usual
April 22, 2020 at 6:52 PM
Charles Schwab spends an extra $27 million on staff amid Covid-19, $37 million spent to keep three M&A deals chugging ahead
The San Francisco broker paid cash in March to workers amid challenges of the pandemic as trading exploded, retail calls spiked 16%
April 18, 2020 at 6:45 PM
With an eye to cast-aside prospects, Marty Bicknell and Shirl Penney combine to launch 1099 platform with ambitions to surpass Mariner Wealth as soon as 2025
Into a crowded field of IAR servicers, the Mariner Holdings CEO is relying on his peer at Dynasty Financial Partners to deliver its famed one-stop desktop for breakaway brokers who seek simplicity and familiarity
April 17, 2020 at 5:06 PM
Schwab's merger with TD Ameritrade was sterling until the Covid-19 pandemic and financial collapse took some of the shine off the deal
Charles Schwab & Co.'s decision to buy TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. in Nov. 2019 looked like a lock, but 'Schwabitrade' has been rocked by wholesale branch closings, plummeting share prices and emergency rate cuts to near zero.
April 14, 2020 at 11:13 PM
COVID-19 crushes RIA conference schedule; 100 gatherings are in jeopardy along with the bottom lines of publications and organizations
Pershing INSITE is the latest biggie to cancel and firms are all over the map about when it'll be 'safe' for more than 10 people to gather at any one time.
April 14, 2020 at 5:58 AM
COVID-19 throws a curve ball at RIA M&A market, gut-punching valuations and causing fence-sitters to resolve to get the hell out, but Q1 prices hold their own
M&A rainmakers hedge their bets on how deep COVID-19 will drive cuts to RIA sale prices, although first quarter market has been stable.
April 10, 2020 at 1:50 AM
Four years into startup, Vestwell makes its big move -- nixing FIS's recordkeeping for the 401(k) super-bot it built with Goldman Sachs' VC money
The Aaron Schum start-up will start again as a turnkey pension program that allows RIAs to better unify 401(k) and non-401(k) practices and be searchable as database
April 9, 2020 at 2:11 AM
COVID-19 may quickly expose that McKinsey's 2030 vision report ill-advisedly reprises Mark Hurley's 1999 logic about classic RIAs as easy marks for 'enterprises'
The New York-based consultant sees bigger, more digital companies (Wall Street 2.0 in other words) dominating -- a de facto logical black hole that desk-bound consultants gravitate to.
April 7, 2020 at 8:01 PM
Vestmark credits a 'tip-off' and an unlikely rocket propellant -- advertising spend -- for Adhesion's 68% asset jump in first-year under its wing
When the Wakefield, Mass., TAMP bought Adhesion in 2018, its execs cited its 'be-like-Envestnet' mindset for growing RIA marketshare
April 7, 2020 at 12:58 AM
Phones at RIA cash managers 'ring off the hook' amid yield crunch and MaxMyInterest pulls rabbit out of hat -- keeping rates on FDIC cash near pre-cut levels
Though StoneCastle, Flourish, and Galileo offer low rates, inflows soar higher because cash is king as Gary Zimmerman promises to keep Max soaring -- but B2C Wealthfront and Betterment banks? Not so much
April 3, 2020 at 11:20 PM
Behind the scenes, Envestnet's board of directors had much to tussle over before finally subtracting the 'interim' from Bill Crager's CEO title
With Jud Bergman gone at a chairman, a power struggle ensued to fill that spot, and the process dragged when taking the company private came under review
April 2, 2020 at 2:34 AM
Why Charles Schwab staffers are still waving COVID-19 red flags even after Walt Bettinger capitulated to allow most of them to work at home
Schwab employees cite outdated phone systems, using vacation days to stay safe and confusion, but firm says CEO is contending with unrevealed Homeland Security regs that supersede germ fears
