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Articles published 5/2013


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Cammie Doder: We want to be super-responsive and empathetic that our industry and our space can be very confusing.

Family offices are facing frustration as 'prima donna' sales stars prove to be in short supply to handle like clients

Assets seem to be growing healthily at family offices but many of the old-school practices are in a bad spot

May 31, 2013 at 8:01 PM

Dan Sievert and Greg Friedman, who noted:I am basically the poster child for every problem in our industry.

The FPA NorCal Conference burnishes its little-gem image with big RIAs and other advisory progressives

700 people pow-wowed at The (respendent) Palace of San Francisco and none of their activity escaped the Tim Welsh watchful eye

May 30, 2013 at 6:10 PM

John Stuart: We're replicating the wirehouse portal.

One RIA's bid to make the technology that makes it possible to use one password

Beverly Hills Wealth Management wants to eliminate the downside of open architecture

May 29, 2013 at 4:23 AM

Jud Bergman: We've identified about a dozen advisors and two enterprises that want to be [involved] during this first period of introduction of the [quantitative portfolios].

5 things Envestnet is doing to grow even faster than most of its clients

The outsourcer boasts year-over-year quarterly revenue growth of 43% by adding advisors and what it sells to them

May 28, 2013 at 6:05 AM

Larry Stupski never sought much credit -- only results. But higher-ups who knew him give him unbridled kudos for his leadership at Schwab.

Larry Stupski is remembered as the other man, hands down, who made Schwab great

The soft-spoken, hard-driving guy is largely credited with Schwab's sale to BoA, its buyout from BoA and its IPO -- all big successes

May 24, 2013 at 4:39 AM

Mike Durbin (with Sanjiv Mirchandani) says that Abby Johnson signaled her intention to meld the efforts of Fidelity's various business units.

Abby Johnson wins RIA respect by articulating her bold vision for Fidelity's future at the company's Executive Forum

Hillary Clinton gave a great speech in Naples but the chairman's daughter gave a glimpse of her determination to attack channel insularity -- and what kind of a successor she might be

May 23, 2013 at 2:12 AM

Jennifer Ingham: The B-D relationship is needed because in the RIA world of investments for corporate retirement plans. many funds still pay some sort of revenue sharing.

Why a $1-billion Fidelity RIA is placing LPL at the heart of its 401(k) business

Ingham Retirement dropped Sentinel Securities for LPL and is also becoming a retirement plan vendor to many LPL reps

May 22, 2013 at 4:29 AM

Brendan Little: Litigation serves as an important deterrent by identifying and penalizing those service providers that are responsible for the egregious fees.

An attorney explains where the 'trail goes cold' in PBS' 'Retirement Gamble'

Just where the line is between a legal and illegal 401(k) plan is important to know

May 21, 2013 at 5:52 PM

Aaron Klein: On a heavy day, tweet eight to 10 times. Most days, tweet once or twice.

How to get going on Twitter

This social media can be the most intimidating to start but it can be the best and most effective, too

May 21, 2013 at 6:01 AM

Dan Arnold: Now that our footprint's in place [we're] moving into the third phase of our strategy in 2013.

LPL to Wall Street types: We're in phase three

At a Merrill Lynch forum, the IBD's CFO explains that Phase I was the mass accumulation of advisors and Phase 2 was about RIA-ification

May 20, 2013 at 2:47 PM

Mark Tibergien: It's been a dream of ours.

Pershing and BNY Mellon unveil a unified, 'dream' RIA and bank custody unit

The idea is to create one service experience for assets held in both bank and brokerage accounts under a single advisor -- with Mark Tibergien calling all the shots.

May 17, 2013 at 4:29 AM

Leonard Palmer allows that not every RBC broker's request to become an RIA under RBC is approved.

What ever became of RBC's RIA custody unit after it showed such promise

Royal Bank of Canada high-ups say RBC Advisor Services still holds importance, but the Cerulli numbers are concerning and some RBC brokers are barred from channel switches

May 16, 2013 at 5:08 PM

Steve Lockshin: I think we were surprised at the resistance from the entire industry.

What led to Advizent's end and why Steve Lockshin is unfazed, even energized

The RIA business -- including custodians, asset managers and advisory firms -- lived up to its reputation of resisting cooperation

May 15, 2013 at 11:00 PM

Martin Smith: We never considered this investigative in the sense that it wasn't information that was already out there.

Why the industry needs to accept some blame for 'flaws' in PBS Frontline's 'Retirement Gamble'

The PBS report was slanted, simplistic and went in for shock value, say critics, but some in the industry say too-high fees are in fact the root of the problem

May 15, 2013 at 3:09 AM

Jeffrey Concepcion: I'd tell you the biggest victory was the vindication and comments from former co-workers.

How Jeffrey Concepcion manned up after FINRA and Lincoln Financial troubles to become an LPL giant

In only four years, his OSJ RIA has $6.2 billion in advised assets and 130 advisors, thanks to a radical cold-calling plan and lower, yes lower, payouts than other OSJs

May 14, 2013 at 6:31 AM

Grant Barger: Any prospect should ask: What is your purpose?

5 questions advisors must prepare to answer to remain relevant

An advisor must know who he or she is and express it in simple terms

May 13, 2013 at 5:05 PM

Kris Schellhas and Chris Duffield: The U.S. government issued a patent for identifying investment grade diamonds, paving the way for diamonds to be a publicly traded commodity in the near future.

What RIAs need to know about why diamonds aren't just for pawn shops, brides and African cartels anymore

With De Beers humbled, valuation methods standardized and hundreds of millions of Chinese headed to middle-class nuptials, it's a new story

May 13, 2013 at 3:42 AM

That his writing oozed with plays on that absurdity did not make him frivolous. Quite the opposite. (Photo: Dow Jones)

Why I'll really miss Alan Abelson

The inimitable Barron's editor and writer always delivered the spoonful of sugar with the medicine

May 11, 2013 at 12:34 AM

Bill Crager: The content race will be on and we'll open up a whole new competitive landscape for asset management.

Having won advisor assets, Envestnet's next -- more Google-like -- play is for their smarts

The Chicago outsourcer will soak up and synthesize information from 23,000 advisors and distribute it in real time in an effort to create one big giant brain out of an atomized industry

May 10, 2013 at 5:40 PM

John Furey:  Most deals get stuck when a proposed transaction is accretive for only one party.

How, strangely, money gets downplayed in RIA deal making and why it helps explain an anemic flow

Culture, fit, philosophy and a firm handshake are all swell, but without a financial bettering of the parties' interests, a deal rarely progresses

May 10, 2013 at 3:49 AM

Cathy Curtis: My goal is to have prospective women clients find me on LinkedIn.

RIAs recount how they reap new clients using LinkedIn and Twitter, stealing a march on shackled wirehouse advisors

A whopping 90% of the mass-affluent investor pool is online and 44% of them are actively looking for an advisor

May 9, 2013 at 6:51 AM

Sanjiv Mirchandani: People in this business don't make a move until they get everyone in the family to make a sale.

Fidelity gleans why so many 'attractive' advisors cling to wirehouses and Cerulli's newest RIA data shows plenty find courage

Those hefty retention bonuses aren't the only thing keeping brokers tied to their desks -- family sentiment has huge impact on 'fence-sitters'

May 8, 2013 at 10:16 PM

BloombergBlack, which registered as an RIA with the SEC in 2010, has 33 employees, including former branch managers from TD Ameritrade and Fidelity will occupy a few square feet of this building.

What is up with Bloomberg launching an RIA, BloombergBlack, and hiring a bunch of ex-TD, -Fido and -Schwab folks to staff it?

It's not clear how this fits in with Bloomberg's bigger plan and the effort seems a little tentative but the data giant has resources

May 8, 2013 at 4:13 PM

Scott Pritchard: A plan sponsor said recently: 'Other issues are just bigger than the 401(k) plan. As long as it's low-maintenance, then I’m happy.'

The PBS 'Frontline' 401(k) documentary names suspects but leaves out major culprits of the theft of the American retirement

Wall Street charges excessive hidden fees, but it's all within the bounds that the system allows

May 8, 2013 at 6:20 AM

Sallie Krawcheck: I worry our industry will become the Republican party -- with middle-age white guys talking to middle-age white guys, saying that we need to change.

At Envestnet event, Sallie Krawcheck alludes to Crager alliance, blasts women-as-niche marketers and edges perhaps closer to endorsing the RIA model

The former wirehouse exec is satisfied with her own 'gal about town' status but not 'Republican' tendencies of financial advisors

May 7, 2013 at 4:27 PM

Phyllis Borzi: We thought we hadn't done enough.

Borzi: Exemptions from conflict of interest will be part of new fiduciary proposal

An easing of the ban against advisors accepting payment from money managers for selling their products may be in the works

May 7, 2013 at 3:14 AM

Meredith Whitney: I am not a doom-and-gloomer. I've been a growth chaser.

Meredith Whitney blames '60 Minutes' for her muni 'call,' then doubles down on the 'hell' coming for muni bonds

In places like Stockton, Calif., bondholders are being paid, but cuts to public pensions, rising crime and slow emergency responses, cuts to sports, arts programs in the schools are the price

May 6, 2013 at 4:19 PM

Peter Giza: The answer is as Thorsten pointed out; the day is coming quickly that tablets could be obsolete ... Consolidation will drive development of docking systems

What RIAs should make of Blackberry CEO's prediction that iPad-like tablets will be dead in five years

The pronouncement comes as companies like Envestnet -- and a whole world of advisors -- are just getting warmed up to the iPad

May 6, 2013 at 3:59 PM

Jeff Carney has been test-driving jobs and settled on the Canadian model.

Jeff Carney lands in Ontario where he'll lead a fund giant with 4,500 associated financial advisors

Schwab's short-tenured ex-branch chief and former Fido star returns to near his college stomping grounds in taking role at Mackenzie Investments

May 4, 2013 at 11:08 PM

Geoffrey Clauss: I'm coming in to help scale this.

Addepar hires an Advent talent to help head sales, an ex-Lehman exec as COO and an ex-Merrill Lynch strategist

Geoffrey Clauss, Eric Poirier and Caroline O'Mahony all took pay cuts to help position the firm to gobble serious RIA market share

May 3, 2013 at 5:11 AM

David DeVoe: We should be seeing over 100 external sales a year – nearly two times what we are seeing in actual transactions.

Schwab 2013 RIA M&A data show hope but also futility

David DeVoe and Mark Hurley weigh in on just exactly what is and isn't working

May 3, 2013 at 4:38 AM

Walter Bettinger: We did not expect conflict. We're not seeing it.

Some Schwab independent branches are raking in assets as much as 200% above goals, Schwab CEO says

Analysts applaud the scant data but one RIA has the opposite reaction to what Walt Bettinger said

May 2, 2013 at 8:15 PM

At the Red Rocks resort this week, Denver lay at the feet of the 100 advisors who subscribe to active managing of portfolios.

RIAs who trade very much seek to know more at a mile-high NAAIM Conference

The 24-year-old group makes its first dedicated market hire and continues to demand respect

May 2, 2013 at 8:11 PM

Jud Bergman: Many of them have experienced an ah-ha moment. That's the moment that all pioneers love. (Photo courtesy of Tiburon Strategic Advisors)

Envestnet breaks out ENV2 to oohs, aahs and a few groans at its bust-out event in Chicago

After years of cobbling on capabilities, the TAMP streamlined and made tablet-compatible its web presence, though not to pure approbation

May 2, 2013 at 5:17 AM

Ed O'Brien: Any of the custodians could probably put together an offering like this ...  but they haven't.

Is Fidelity's move to put RIAs deeper into the cloud gonna make it rain?

'First to market' crows Fido. 'Not even close' counter other custodians. But one expert says the Boston-based firm's one-click platform could change everything

May 1, 2013 at 11:59 PM

Andrew Marsh: It's a way for them to manage the account and get paid on it.

A $15-billion roll-up-like venture in Canada gets a US foothold with a Dynasty Financial deal -- and vice-versa

With the deal, born on a frozen lake in Montana, both companies are attempting to keep assets from crossing their borders

May 1, 2013 at 9:34 AM

William Steiner: A lot of clients aren't paying attention to this.

How RIAs are helping their clients participate in confusing lawsuits

2008-2009 market meltdown settlements are just now coming to fruition, and giant RIAs are signing up with a filing firm to get in on the action

May 1, 2013 at 5:13 AM

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