Articles published 4/2020
Headline
Publish date
Amid pandemic, Wealthfront's risk parity fund faces rough stretch, reviving questions about the wisdom of a 'millennial' robo using something as 'Wall Street' as leverage and active management
April 30, 2020 at 9:57 PMThe $20-billion Redwood City, Calif. firm walks fine line between being anti-Wall Street and dabbling in leveraged active investments that COVID-19 markets have hit hard.
Schwab Advisor Services takes EXPLORE, IMPACT and SOLUTIONS 'virtual' in face of COVID-19 pandemic, updates merger, and makes clear the two scheduling details are unrelated
April 29, 2020 at 6:41 PMSet to be held in Fidelity's Boston backyard, IMPACT 2020 will move to the ether, making it one of the industry's premier virtual conferences in a sure sign the RIA world has dramatically changed.
Jeff Concepcion and Howard Milstein combine to take dead aim at COVID-distressed RIA market -- putting youthful executive energies and a billionaire's capital on a bold path
April 24, 2020 at 8:37 PMBoth the Stratos Wealth CEO and the owner of Emigrant Bank are known to be conservative in RIA circles, but together -- shooting for upper-strata firms with as much as $750 million -- they are showing uncharacteristic opportunism.
US economy and stock markets have hit a post-COVID 'rock bottom,' and smartphone data show a stealthy mini-recovery is developing
April 23, 2020 at 9:12 PMSheltering in place was the commerce killer but after Easter, people got hopping again, according to data from their smartphones
After much acclaim but not enough profits, Motif shutters and sells itself off for parts with Folio buying the RIA and retail accounts
April 22, 2020 at 6:52 PMThe $850 million stock-basket company in San Mateo, Calif. had success but -- $126 million invested by Goldman Sachs, Renren and Sallie Krawcheck and others -- not enough to justify business as usual
Charles Schwab spends an extra $27 million on staff amid Covid-19, $37 million spent to keep three M&A deals chugging ahead
April 18, 2020 at 6:45 PMThe San Francisco broker paid cash in March to workers amid challenges of the pandemic as trading exploded, retail calls spiked 16%
With an eye to cast-aside prospects, Marty Bicknell and Shirl Penney combine to launch 1099 platform with ambitions to surpass Mariner Wealth as soon as 2025
April 17, 2020 at 5:06 PMInto a crowded field of IAR servicers, the Mariner Holdings CEO is relying on his peer at Dynasty Financial Partners to deliver its famed one-stop desktop for breakaway brokers who seek simplicity and familiarity
Schwab's merger with TD Ameritrade was sterling until the Covid-19 pandemic and financial collapse took some of the shine off the deal
April 14, 2020 at 11:13 PMCharles Schwab & Co.'s decision to buy TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. in Nov. 2019 looked like a lock, but 'Schwabitrade' has been rocked by wholesale branch closings, plummeting share prices and emergency rate cuts to near zero.
COVID-19 crushes RIA conference schedule; 100 gatherings are in jeopardy along with the bottom lines of publications and organizations
April 14, 2020 at 5:58 AMPershing INSITE is the latest biggie to cancel and firms are all over the map about when it'll be 'safe' for more than 10 people to gather at any one time.
COVID-19 throws a curve ball at RIA M&A market, gut-punching valuations and causing fence-sitters to resolve to get the hell out, but Q1 prices hold their own
April 10, 2020 at 1:50 AMM&A rainmakers hedge their bets on how deep COVID-19 will drive cuts to RIA sale prices, although first quarter market has been stable.
Four years into startup, Vestwell makes its big move -- nixing FIS's recordkeeping for the 401(k) super-bot it built with Goldman Sachs' VC money
April 9, 2020 at 2:11 AMThe Aaron Schum start-up will start again as a turnkey pension program that allows RIAs to better unify 401(k) and non-401(k) practices and be searchable as database
COVID-19 may quickly expose that McKinsey's 2030 vision report ill-advisedly reprises Mark Hurley's 1999 logic about classic RIAs as easy marks for 'enterprises'
April 7, 2020 at 8:01 PMThe New York-based consultant sees bigger, more digital companies (Wall Street 2.0 in other words) dominating -- a de facto logical black hole that desk-bound consultants gravitate to.
Vestmark credits a 'tip-off' and an unlikely rocket propellant -- advertising spend -- for Adhesion's 68% asset jump in first-year under its wing
April 7, 2020 at 12:58 AMWhen the Wakefield, Mass., TAMP bought Adhesion in 2018, its execs cited its 'be-like-Envestnet' mindset for growing RIA marketshare
Phones at RIA cash managers 'ring off the hook' amid yield crunch and MaxMyInterest pulls rabbit out of hat -- keeping rates on FDIC cash near pre-cut levels
April 3, 2020 at 11:20 PMThough StoneCastle, Flourish, and Galileo offer low rates, inflows soar higher because cash is king as Gary Zimmerman promises to keep Max soaring -- but B2C Wealthfront and Betterment banks? Not so much
Behind the scenes, Envestnet's board of directors had much to tussle over before finally subtracting the 'interim' from Bill Crager's CEO title
April 2, 2020 at 2:34 AMWith Jud Bergman gone at a chairman, a power struggle ensued to fill that spot, and the process dragged when taking the company private came under review
Why Charles Schwab staffers are still waving COVID-19 red flags even after Walt Bettinger capitulated to allow most of them to work at home
April 1, 2020 at 3:44 AMSchwab employees cite outdated phone systems, using vacation days to stay safe and confusion, but firm says CEO is contending with unrevealed Homeland Security regs that supersede germ fears
