Articles published 12/2015
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Missive from New England: The Mill Valley-to-Maine scenery change yields its annual payload of inspiration
December 29, 2015 at 3:54 PMMy big financial challenge was buying Christmas gifts with more money than ideas
What the collective unconscious of RIAs in 2015 revealed as crunched by RIABiz article readership
December 28, 2015 at 5:22 PMThose taking new and interesting risks, very much including the ones behind robo efforts, created the kind of drama that an advisor mind could appreciate
20 months in: A field dispatch from an advisor who started an RIA in a strange city with no clients
December 23, 2015 at 7:49 PMAfter stints as a Beverly Hills broker for Merrill and a salesman for Schwab, the Navy veteran went deep into academia to learn his trade
Why Vanguard Group has proved impervious to a '$34.6 billion' whistleblower suit and why nobody's suggesting Vanguard execs should breathe easy
December 22, 2015 at 8:09 PMThe SEC documented a 1981 OK on the asset manager's 'at-cost' fee structure - but if the IRS is egged on it could cost Vanguard bigtime in back taxes, penalties and future business
In first major act as Black Diamond/Advent owner, SS&C Technologies hires operation chief of $14-billion RIA to fill new role
December 21, 2015 at 9:11 PMChris Whiting left Moneta Group in September after big changes at that RIA to join the software company that did his firm's performance reporting
Snakes and ladders: What to expect in the unexpectedly triumphant final DOL fiduciary rule
December 18, 2015 at 12:28 AMWhether converted or just plain exhausted, the staunchest opponents are standing down to make way for the new rule that will go into effect in 2017
NextCapital raises $16 million as its founder goes where Financial Engines' 401(k) robo strategy didn't
December 17, 2015 at 7:17 PMBetting giant asset managers will carry the day, recovering co-founder of Personal Capital Rob Foregger seeks firms like Russell Investments, Alliance Bernstein as VC investors and as enterprise clients
Sources: Lightyear Capital is set to snap up AIG -- and perhaps install Valerie Brown as its leader
December 16, 2015 at 2:28 AMHeads of SagePoint, FSC, Royal Alliance and Woodbury are in New York, perhaps hashing out details of their new life under Donald Marron's private equity unit
Dissecting Blucora's giant act of financial engineering -- adding a broker-dealer to a software roll-up
December 15, 2015 at 6:28 PMM&A expert Bill Ruckelshaus' Bellevue company is paying $580 million for H.D. Vest, a crazy price by some measures but not if 5.5 million existing Blucora customers can be cross-sold
MarketCounsel event opens window on race to first $100-billion RIA and why a new round of 'destruction,' 'blunder,' culture wars, tech disillusionment and SRO jockeying must play out
December 14, 2015 at 8:55 PMWith hedged hyper-optimism, Marty Bicknell, Ron Carson, Mark Tibergien and Shirl Penney got real with Graham Thomas about mad egg-breaking enroute to the perfect RIA omelet
Amid growth slowdown, Personal Capital lists with an investment bank but critics debate if it means 'blood in the water'
December 11, 2015 at 10:58 PMBill Harris has done things his way until now but may hand over control to a giant for a $500 million payday
How Brian Hamburger's Miami Beach confab served up compliance cocktails with Lithium chasers to manic RIAs
December 11, 2015 at 1:25 PMMarketCounsel Summit had trouble topping last year's Spitzer- Robbins- Cuban-extravaganza in Vegas, but dispensed a compliance-minded prescription to RIAs suffering from growth-spurt jitters
401(k) industry howls as DOL lets state governments become DC providers with advantageous exemptions
December 10, 2015 at 7:00 PMMultiple employer plans' under states will have economies of scale, fewer rules, while ERISA bars private firms from banding together
How vendors fail RIAs -- and themselves in the bargain -- by insulting RIA intelligence
December 9, 2015 at 12:42 AMAnything with a whiff of closed architecture, overcharging, inauthenticity, opacity or idiocy masquerading as information is a long-term credibility corrosive
Why a $2 billion advisor bolted Goldman Sachs' $26 billion, Albany-based RIA and subtracted 12,000 commuting miles
December 8, 2015 at 5:37 PMAfter sandwiching a 20-year hiatus between GE and Goldman, Susan Reese continues her brilliant career at Joe Piazza's RIA startup in a quest for open architecture and closely held ownership
How a picture overshadowed thousands of words in the coverage of the 1999 Alex. Brown-Deutsche Bank-Holocaust bombshell and how it resonates still
December 5, 2015 at 8:56 PMThe author helped make The Daily Record but the Nazi graphics for an article about Jewish clients yanking funds ahead of the Nazi financier purchasing the local investment bank and wealth manager ended up blowing up
What to make of Raymond James putting 'Alex. Brown' back into business and what to make of the $420 million it's spending to make it happen
December 4, 2015 at 8:28 PMRaymond James could get the hallowed brand and 200 advisors with $50 billion in advised assets for a nominal price but it'll also be pumping Deutsche products through the AB unit
How two well regarded biz-industry journos are rethinking post-Parish AdvisorHUB
December 3, 2015 at 9:13 PMJed Horowitz and Mason Braswell see potential despite unusual circumstances
Wealthfront takes on another Facebook vet -- a clue that going dark in Palo Alto doesn't mean going away
December 3, 2015 at 6:15 PMThe last-standing pure B2C robo hopes to outwit, outlast, and outplay its competitors by out-hiring them
Why Commonwealth Financial dumped Microsoft CRM and where the decision's go-it-alone hazards lie
December 2, 2015 at 4:58 AMAt stake is what many consider the advisor nerve center of the Waltham, Mass.-based broker-dealer
What Merrill Lynch was able to strip away from breakaway RIA Cardan Capital and why the advisors made the 'tactical' decision to let go
December 1, 2015 at 7:46 PMThese Denver-based advisors achieved a rarefied status at BoA's broker-dealer as money manager and wealth manager before deciding to bolt
