Articles published 9/2024
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Federal judge, who tossed Stephen Greco's sweeping RIA lawsuit, grants leave to refile with more facts and less 'overlong and needlessly complex' arguments
Judge LaShonda Hunt keeps long-running, widely watched case against Creative Planning, Schwab, Fidelity and TD Ameritrade hanging by a thread.
September 28, 2024 at 2:22 AM
The folksy Kitces 'fintech map' ballooned by 265% to 485 brands over six years, a sensation sowing seeds of its own destruction, making Kitces chart two new 'maps' -- including an app
The Kitces map is wildly popular but increasingly Nascar-ized, which may not discourage further RIA software brand atomization, but has bundlers scrambling to react.
September 27, 2024 at 12:41 AM
Envestnet shareholders make it official, they want out of public shares, clearing Bain Capital to press forward -- leaping other hurdles and getting the TAMP at a cash-in-hand discount
The in-limbo Berwyn company still doesn't have a permanent CEO and one losing bidder was FNZ, which is also its named RIA custody partner
September 26, 2024 at 2:43 AM
Charles Schwab Corp. sets 2025 to shut down RIA robo-advisor, will stop onboarding RIA clients in November 2024, offering legacy TD Ameritrade software as replacement
The sister robo advisor, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, will live on as a retail offering but got nixed from Schwab's wealth RIA -- expunging reference to 2022 SEC sanction -- and now will be under RIA of Charles Schwab Investment Management
September 25, 2024 at 2:05 AM
Pontera password-sharing business model is a bridge too far for Fidelity; it bans the practice for its 401(k) plans in blow to the fintech's future
The $4.5-trillion recordkeeper cites data security as the immediate concern but it also cites a clash between unauthorized, unidentified third-party advisors executing trades -- without plan sponsor oversight
September 24, 2024 at 2:15 AM
Betterment changes its RIA custody brand to 'Advisor Solutions' -- a sign that digital innocence and niche marketing are now passé -- but its RIA clients are applauding
RIAs prefer if CEO Sarah Levy goes fuller service even if it means introducing a few analog necessities anti-thetical to startup dreams
September 21, 2024 at 1:38 AM
Schwab Advisor Services discloses IMPACT 2024 details -- think Jon Beatty, AI experts and Dan Pink; it veils the venue, but ... psssstt
The $9.5-trillion brokerage shows its heart is still in San Francisco, and of course, it's hosting at the Moscone Center, featuring new head Jon Beatty, Rick Wurster and Walt Bettinger [no Bernie or Chuck]
September 20, 2024 at 1:24 AM
Dani Fava era of buying à la carte tech for Carson Group takes shape with 'modular'-minded YCharts deal -- but Orion is still the mainstay
YCharts -- a 'Bloomberg-terminal-lite' for RIAs -- signals its less-known risk software gave it a leg up to become part of refreshed Carson strategy to be more 'flexible and innovative.'
September 19, 2024 at 3:22 AM
RIA citizen and pro comments range from 'shocked! shocked!' to 'ho-hum' on Fed's 50-point rate cut but agree on key points
Small wealth practice owners and economists agree employment and housing can benefit from cheaper money, but inflation reduction could be arrested
September 19, 2024 at 12:12 AM
eMoney and Flourish collaborate to gather assets by addressing client inertia with a new tool to sweep stranded, held-away deposits into higher yielding Flourish accounts
The Fidelity-owned software vendor's aim is to aggregate held away assets but will stay well clear of moving sweep cash or identifying choices.
September 18, 2024 at 3:58 AM
Wealth.com extends win streak, again -- Google Ventures (GV) leads its 'A' round -- by making AI-driven estate planning seem doable to advisors
The 2020 Phoenix startup wins $30 million after it scored the ultimate wealth URL then kept rolling winning big vendors, big RIA tech awards and big-name backing.
September 17, 2024 at 3:36 AM
Two 27-year-olds raise $3.6 million to mine 'real-time,' high-net-worth RIA leads, with AI doing double duty to wire client-advisor chemistry
Farbod Nowzad and Eshan Govil, who co-founded Cashmere, start by mining life events as they are happening then take steps not to squander good timing
September 13, 2024 at 3:30 AM
Knut Rostad: The 'fiduciary' movement's lost mojo tracks with the rise of Reg BI, which harmonizes advisors by making sure are all conflicted alike
Wall Street brokerages and SIFMA won the SEC over to a suitability standard with a false label, and advisors are left with a public perception still in line with car salesmen, says Rostad, a fiduciary expert.
September 12, 2024 at 3:08 AM
Under new owner, AssetMark names new CEO, but Michael Kim is keeping his CEO job, too -- as post-TAMP era draws near, and company gears up for 'aggressive growth'
The Concord, Calif., TAMP is adding the second CEO to jack up leadership bandwidth to grow organically and inorganically -- and evolve into a more generalized outsourcer.
September 11, 2024 at 4:12 AM
Vanguard is finally flavoring its 'vanilla' robo-RIA with 99.7% lower minimum, a 25 basis-point 'active' version -- and 'personalized coaching,' albeit provided by a robot
The new Malvern, Pa., CEO gets a new toy -- a killer $330-billion RIA unit with a Robo arm -- that was not in his arsenal during his BlackRock days.
September 10, 2024 at 1:48 AM
Two years after infamous reversal, Vanguard votes 'yes' on zero of 400 ESG proposals but it also shot down anti-ESG proposals
After cutting ties with Net Zero alliance, the Malvern, Pa. giant netted zero pro-ESG votes but it also won grudging appreciation from ESG advocates for voting against 40 anti-ESG proposals
September 7, 2024 at 3:55 AM
Salim Ramji will match, then 'exceed,' Vanguard rivals' technology with Amazon help -- a move Fidelity has already made -- and he's an outright 'Boglehead,' he says in new interview
The new Vanguard CEO acknowledges the company 'could have started earlier' than three years ago, and his domain architect, Joseph Wagner, Jr., says starting fresh is helping purge 'weird errors.'
September 6, 2024 at 1:46 AM
Marty Bicknell buys a second M&A shop 10 years after the first • Advisor360 repeopling includes new people officer, and seven other major hires • By women, for women corporate RIA nets 10th partner
Mariner CEO is again reversing the predatory script • Some 53% of Advisor360's 15-strong senior management joined the firm in the last 12 months • LGBTQIA+-friendly corporate RIA grows AUM to $283 million, after three new partners join.
September 5, 2024 at 3:31 AM
Steve Chen sunsets 'NewRetirement,' launches a new brand and is set to take financial planning to vast masses, starting with RIA and enterprise C-suite chats
The founder of [now] 'Boldin' got to $70 billion and 30,000 customers as a 'consumer' app but the hard pivot to -- foremost -- an enterprise platform is set to go full tilt and '10X' comes into focus.
