Articles published 8/2020
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Two big adverse legal events hit Envestnet this week but the share price wavered only slightly -- perhaps for good reason
Delaware judge says 'FinApps' lawsuit can go deeper in discovery but not on counts where he had a say; Yodlee may get dragged to court, too, in Northern California but the Chicago firm's stock holds mostly steady at $82
August 29, 2020 at 6:55 PM
State Street's category-killing SPY finally has a little brother after ESG 'inflection point' pushes the bank to bet on filtered S&P 500 ETF
The franchise extension of the Boston giant's $275-billion S&P 500 golden goose comes as Vanguard and BlackRock rake in ESG assets and environmental, social and governance filters get applied to about $13 trillion of assets.
August 27, 2020 at 11:25 PM
RIABiz turns 11, thinks 'startup' and goes flat-out to cover 'RIAs' amid startling growth, automation and mutation
The Mill Valley, Calif. publication got situated in decade one and now 2.0 begins a quest to build on the momentum
August 26, 2020 at 1:42 AM
Focus Financial CEO pumps brakes hard on M&A market, waiting for a return to 'normal' -- and buyers of Focus stock bid up price as debt ratio improves
Rudy Adolf sees RIA-seller supply catching up with serial-buyer demand soon enough and that his roll-up's discipline will pay dividends and restore its market leadership
August 25, 2020 at 3:39 AM
With Envestnet-Yodlee help, Charles Schwab & Co. puts finishing touch on freemium model with free planning; it also -- Personal Capital style -- launches freebie tools for non-Schwab clients
The San Francisco-brokerage is private-labelling MoneyGuidePro plan software and Yodlee for aggregated account data, to launch free retirement planning onto the market ahead of closing its merger with TD Ameritrade.
August 22, 2020 at 5:05 AM
Despite just a 30-day window, 8,700 people comment -- most with scathing disapproval -- on DOL's efforts to outlaw ESG in 401(k) plans on behalf of mystery proponents
The Department of Labor good-is-bad rulemaking clashes with the take of most Americans in 2020, who don't buy its investing logic, legal theory or take on humanity.
August 20, 2020 at 10:32 PM
How a white senior vice president at an LPL OSJ came to hire a former black minister as recruiter despite the latter's pledge to make it 'uncomfortable' at times
Rob Sandrew hit it off with Keith L. Frasier, willing to speak up on racial and racial justice issues, who also checks all the boxes for attracting talent and assets at a firm that recruited $2 billion last year
August 19, 2020 at 2:18 AM
Vanguard Group seeks 'new business model,' it says, to explain blockchain pilot program it completed as key step toward issuing a paperless, tradeable asset next year
The Malvern, Pa., manager of $6.2 trillion keeps plugging away with Symbiont toward a distributed ledger that promises to reduce costs, expose errors and increase transparency.
August 18, 2020 at 3:28 AM
Envestnet's shares are surging; it's getting Tamarac's 1,000-plus RIAs to invest more of their $1.2 trillion of assets in its managed accounts and MoneyGuidePro is succeeding as part of the Tamarac bundle
CEO Bill Crager told analysts that RIA clients are connecting to his Chicago outsourcer more broadly, improving profits and making the outlook bright
August 15, 2020 at 1:46 AM
Clara Shih gets Salesforce to cough up RIA CRM data and venture cash to charge up Hearsay after 2.0-model upstarts draw a target on her back
The CEO of the San Francisco robo-content curator already dominates market share, but now Hearsay is hoping CRM advisor data will make its robotics simulate human online interaction more convincingly.
August 13, 2020 at 2:44 AM
Charles Schwab had an easy decision to keep afloat TD Ameritrade's thinkorswim platform, but Veo and Veo One are more likely to be scuttled post-merger
TD bought Thinkorswim for $600 million a decade ago; it remains an industry leader and RIA favorite for hedging portfolios -- and it will mesh with Schwab's platforms
August 11, 2020 at 5:11 AM
Charles Schwab Corp.'s $1.6 billion USAA deal is yielding 1,000 referrals a week at the right price in an increasingly competitive client acquisition game
The San Francisco broker's bet that USAA insurance customers would like Schwab offerings better is proving out in the early weeks.
August 8, 2020 at 1:52 AM
Skip Schweiss exit from TD Ameritrade means the RIA custody business lost its most visible corporate-paid advocate -- for the moment
TD's now ex-managing director of advisor advocacy is set to become the FPA president, but most peers agree the 58-year-old is poised to 'write his ticket' with another custodian or national RIA
August 5, 2020 at 9:33 PM
Walt Bettinger expects 'hundreds' of Charles Schwab Corp. staff tasked with wiring TD Ameritrade merger to soon soar to 'thousands' of Schwab and TD workers
The Charles Schwab Corp. CEO reassured Wall Street analysts looking for a sign Schwab believes what it promises about an imminent closing that it has yet to schedule.
August 4, 2020 at 6:12 AM
Ten months after it signaled it would, Vanguard Group unleashes its advice robot with analysts sure that 15 basis points and no-nonsense brand will net billions in no time
Almost out of its pilot stage, the Malvern, Pa.-based giant's 'Digital Advisor' shambles onto the robo scene almost a decade late but may catch Schwab and Betterment anyway with its pristine plainness, analysts predict
