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Articles published 9/2022


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Frank Bonanno: Cash as an asset class is back.

RIAs are drowning cash managers with 'silly' inflows as they line up for insured 3% yields -- the best port in the Federal Reserve's interest rate storm

The Fed's 'overarching focus' on killing inflation is giving life to StoneCastle, MaxMyInterest and Flourish Cash, which are built to do workarounds on FDIC limits at the best rates.

September 30, 2022 at 1:51 AM

Newly named CEO Jon Isaacson has a month to pull off what his predecessor couldn't during the prior 23 months.

Mark Casady is under the gun to spend his SPAC's $200 million of cash to avoid October deadline but a recent SEC filing sounds an ominous note after CEO departs

Lefteris reports that Jon Isaacson is taking over as CEO from Karl Roessner, the 'natural choice' to make a deal, according to Casady, though it's down to a few weeks

September 29, 2022 at 1:24 AM

Shirl Penney expands his options with new $50M credit line to weather poor IPO market.

Amid poor IPO conditions and literal incoming hurricane, Dynasty Financial gets $50 million credit line, calling it 'dry powder' for 'strategic investments' to bridge to eventual public offering

The St. Petersburg, Fla., TAMP and outsourcing hub for RIAs filed for an IPO in January and now has cash on tap to ride out the poor IPO market.

September 28, 2022 at 1:50 AM

Dan Reyes: 'Despite the ETF’s capable advisor and sound approach to factor investing, it has not gained scale since its 2018 debut.'

There were so many good reasons for Vanguard to fold its first ETF but radical underperformance may stand out for the 'illiquidity' fund

The Malvern, Pa., manager blamed $44-million fund's scale, but marked underperformance and a manager departure as likely doomed it, one Vanguard watcher says

September 27, 2022 at 1:51 AM

Hussain Zaidi (with Eric Clarke): Most didn't need asset management. They needed paycheck management.

Two years (almost) after leaving Orion, Hussain Zaidi unveils a second financial planning company, more like a budget robot, with Eric Clarke as an investor

The founder of Advizr sold his firm to Orion in 2019, left at start of 2021, and he's now ready for a new start. also backed by Vanilla founder Steve Lockshin and Lloyds of London's chairman.

September 24, 2022 at 1:48 AM

Joe Lonsdale: As the alternative space matures there's room for creative approaches and ... products that might not have worked in the past.

Addepar founder Joe Lonsdale's second alts tech startup for RIAs, Opto Investments, leaves 'stealth' mode with $145 million raise and the chutzpah to take on iCapital and CAIS

Opto comes late to the alts game, but at a $475-million valuation, VC backers are seeing founders' vision of a way-upmarket niche

September 23, 2022 at 2:38 AM

Megan Pacholok: If the lawsuits are successful, this [could] lead plan sponsors facing similar questions on every fund offered.

Making lemonade of legal lemons, new wave of ERISA class actions accuse fiduciaries of 'imprudently' using low-fee, high-rated funds, like BlackRock TDFs

The lawsuits against 401(k) plan sponsors also threaten every RIA and fiduciary, if underperformance becomes a legal liability, lawyers say.

September 22, 2022 at 1:34 AM

Josh Brown: Weather-wise, we definitely took a risk, but the risk paid off.

Future Proof spent 'millions' and got a 'gazillion permits' in 2022 and the VC-backed 'Reformed Broker's' festivus is on track for 10,000 attendees by 2025

The RIA 'festival' kept sessions short, mingling high, ages low and older folks amazed, as the weather cooperated and Josh Brown proved how far a blogger can go.

September 21, 2022 at 1:55 AM

David Lau: We have to get you past your own biases.

Bolstered by a booming Black Diamond deal, DPL grows investor base 8X, raises another $20 million and holds off on a likely bigger round until 2023

The Louisville, Ky., no-transaction-fee annuity platform for RIAs keeps converting advisors, but it takes lots of technology and old-fashioned explaining to reverse the stigma.

September 20, 2022 at 1:48 AM

Ching Tao: Farther is really trying to revolutionize wealth management, and it's incredibly exciting.

Farther hires Ching Tao as 'head of people,' and she discloses three weapons the VC-backed RIA with $250-million of AUM is arming her with to attract gobs of premium talent

One ex-Goldman Sachs co-founder in his 30s nabbed an ex-Goldman exec in her 50s and promise to arm her with many flexible lures, like remote work and maybe 1099 jobs -- and shares in the startup early on.

September 16, 2022 at 8:26 PM

Zak Boka: We can onboard an eight-year [alts] investment ... in a handful of minutes.

Startup gets Black Diamond and Addepar to integrate, maybe Orion and Tamarac en route, by creating a hack that lets people see analog alts like art collections the way they see digital hedge funds

AltExchange raised $1.25 million but bridged an alts gap that firms that spent hundreds of millions have not -- especially downmarket where alts are new on the scene

September 16, 2022 at 2:42 AM

Suleman Din [with Craig Ramsey]: This is not a business, this is a community building effort that leads with content.

With 'Junxure' reboot a driver, RIA publication startup springs to life with Financial Planning magazine veterans, Franklin Templeton footing the bill and Suzanne Siracuse and Brian Hamburger on the board

Action! is a weekly digital and bi-annual print publication run by Suleman Din, and it won't sell subscriptions or advertising -- other than imputedly to its own AdvisorEngine unit

September 15, 2022 at 12:03 AM

​  ​​Sonya Dreizler [with Liv Gagnon]  is betting she can make societal advancements into good business.

Sonya Dreizler's zeal is turning 2022 RIA events into a giant coming-out for talented women, with Choir algorithms and a larger halo effect

Long a Twitter force, the San Francisco entrepreneur caught a women's wave with a judicious admixture of money, meaning and exquisite timing.

September 13, 2022 at 10:58 PM

Louis Harvey:  You could say the DOL is at the root of the problem.

Fidelity Investments reveals 'all-time high' 401(k) plan sponsor discontent, thanks to DOL monkey wrench that creates 'race to bottom,' key expert adds

Some 47% of plan sponsors are considering a new advisor, up from 34% last year, and 48% are considering a change of recordkeepers.

September 13, 2022 at 1:51 AM

Mary Ann Bartels: We will probably go through many changes as this new form of technology evolves under the umbrella of decentralized finance including cryptocurrencies, NFTs and the metaverse.

A Merrill Lynch-intensive breakaway raft of $25-billion AUA nabbed $1-billion ex-Merrill 'Auric' and hired 'Mary Ann' -- whose last stop was at Merrill where she was a 'favorite'

CEO Jim Dickson was able to lure Mary Ann Bartels out of her furlough to join Sanctuary and flex her newfound knowledge of the metaverse and cryptoverse.

September 8, 2022 at 11:05 PM

Eric Clarke and Michael Wilson were still just football buddies at this MSU-Cornhuskers game in 2015 but now game stakes are about to go much higher.

Eric Clarke hands 'Orion' reins to Brian McLaughlin in big reorganization that frees him to begin high-level hacking of 'One Orion' with newest hire Michael Wilson

The Orion CEO is yielding day-to-day power in the software sphere to the Redtail founder so he can think about integration from 30,000 feet with an unusual LPL entrepreneurial talent in Wilson.

September 8, 2022 at 1:07 AM

Cheryl Bicknell: It's only the first bite of the apple.

Cheryl Bicknell drops the largest on-stage news bomb, and Dan Seivert's revenge event in sparkling San Diego got a WTH explanation for those 20-times multiples

The Mariner Wealth COO says her Kansas company will spike headcount 400% in a 'few' years, fitting the Dealmakers confab mission to explain the inexplicably soaring RIA deal volumes, runaway valuations, and a future where it's only expected to accelerate.

September 7, 2022 at 1:41 AM

David Fortunato: We will be cash flow positive and EBITDA profitable in the next few months.

UBS backs out of Wealthfront deal, coughs up $69 million and will 'build' not buy as digital top gun Naureen Hassan's arrival as CEO of UBS Americas hangs nigh

The Swiss-owned wirehouse was going to pay $1.4 billion before the market plunged, and UBS brought on a new digital-savvy CEO to lead its online efforts

September 3, 2022 at 1:34 AM

Jim Iannazzo pictured in a police mug shot, has closed the book on criminal and civil charges.

Infamous stockbroker resolves civil suit stemming from violent tirade -- the apparent final chapter in an incident that went viral and forever branded him the 'Fairfield Smoothie Guy'

Broker Jim Iannazzo went all out with high-powered attorneys and slick Las Vegas crisis pr team to limit the damage from his actions, but whether he can ever live down the incident remains to be seen.

September 1, 2022 at 5:11 AM

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