RIABiz

News, Vision & Voice for the Advisory Community

  • Subscribe
  • Whitepapers
  • Directory
  • RIABiz

    Articles published 4/2025


    Headline

    Publish date


    Salim Ramji:[John Bendl brings] forward-thinking leadership, and operates with humility.
    Read more

    Vanguard gets new CFO, Salim Ramji's second, strategic and handpicked selection • High rates but lower-balance money markets • SEC loses nearly 1-in-5 staff -- largely from its legal nerve center

    April 29, 2025 at 2:51 AM

    Vanguard CEO puts John Bendl in strategic role • Money markets fall off record highs • Capital Group joins private credit goldrush • John Thiel signs on with DPL • RIA poaches top AssetMark exec, names him president.

    Read more →

    Alex Blostein likes Schwab's return to normal growth -- and balance sheet solidity.
    Read more

    Goldman Sachs signals Charles Schwab Corp. is out of the woods with huge rating upgrade based on less debt, more cash and 'durable' organic growth

    April 26, 2025 at 4:55 AM

    Analyst Alex Blostein pushed the target to $100 after the balance sheet looks healthiest since bank crisis, and TD Ameritrade customers are buying more Schwab products

    Read more →

    Sarah Levy: Our plans this year are more ambitious than ever.
    Read more

    Betterment will add self-directed investing in 2025 as part of grander post-robo plan-- something co-founder Jon Stein admits is likely long overdue

    April 25, 2025 at 1:02 AM

    CEO Sarah Levy also green-lit bridge-borrowing against investments as company moves beyond child-proof model to allow investor discretion -- and into more direct competiton with Schwab, Fidelity and Robinhood.

    Read more →

    Adrienne Gurley: The new number will have to be a big enough number to have a meaningful change.
    Read more

    Top federal regulator floats putting 'mid-size' RIAs -- possibly up to $1 billion in AUM -- under sole state purview, and Adrienne Gurley provides insights in an RIABiz Q&A

    April 24, 2025 at 1:46 AM

    Commissioner Mark Uyeda dropped the bomb on April 8 and Gurley, a former SEC senior counsel, offered to answer questions about serious practical ramifications.

    Read more →

    Shan Shan: Transforming the custodial layer of wealth management is no small feat.
    Read more

    Altruist wins 'unsolicited' $152-million raise, including capital from Salesforce, which is midstream 'very deep integration' signalling shift to $1-billion-plus RIAs

    April 23, 2025 at 2:06 AM

    The Culver City custodian now has 20-plus $1-billion-plus RIAs and average size is 43% larger as integrations with Orion, Advyzon and Tamarac lay groundwork to tackle Schwab and Fidelity

    Read more →

    Vlad Tenev: It's kind of like the news before it happens, which I think is extremely valuable to society
    Read more

    Robinhood's surefire 'RIA' play -- custody and robo-advice -- just got shakier as its 'betting' ambitions go full bore and eight states (blue and red) throw up resistance

    April 22, 2025 at 2:24 AM

    'DNA' and rule issues are real but legal sources say Congress could soon make the firm's gambling foray a moot point.

    Read more →

    Rick Wurster: They'd love to work with a trusted brand.
    Read more

    Rick Wurster puts hard(er) date on Schwab spot bitcoin launch, after key hire and 400% surge in visits to its 'crypto site,' but isn't pulling down crypto red flags quite yet

    April 19, 2025 at 3:39 AM

    The Schwab CEO expects house 'spot' trading by mid-April 2026, though Schwab's site starkly warns crypto has no 'inherent value.'

    Read more →

    Joe Davis: Don’t chase the markets
    Read more

    Vanguard's deal with Blackstone follows its bleak, almost black, market prognosis • SSGA launches another 'Apollo' product, sans Apollo brand • SEC OKs 'green' exchange • Senators call out Trump 'fraud' in letter to new SEC chair

    April 18, 2025 at 2:26 AM

    Recession signals grow • Confirmed as chair, SEC's Atkins faces Trump decision • InvestCloud nabs ex-Envestnet COO • Tibergien protégé lands at RIA • RIAs still see direct-indexing as a solution hunting for a problem • Software companies hire & launch.

    Read more →

    Tim White: 'It's the year of the RFP.'
    Read more

    Charles Schwab Corp. buys stake in Wealth.com and became latest of Big Three to chase the $90-trillion-dollar asset hand-off

    April 17, 2025 at 3:21 AM

    Aging high-net-worth investors starting to seek answers about last, big transfer hold lion's share of Westlake, Texas, brokerage's $10 trillion in assets -- a place where Vanguard and Fidelity have made recent moves, too

    Read more →

    Salim Ramji: Will bring long-term benefits of public and private markets to even more investors.
    Read more

    Vanguard and Blackstone disclose joint 'initiative' to bring alts to mass investors after private 'talks' leak months ahead of planned news release

    April 16, 2025 at 2:02 AM

    The 'culture clash' collaboration of the kings of two different markets could be a good high-net-worth retail strategy for each -- but they have serious stuff to work out.

    Read more →

    David Solomon: Lamented $70 million Goldman Gulfstream jet had no shower.
    Read more

    Goldman Sachs CEO's taste for sleek private jets runs into flak as cost cutting sweeps the bank and shareholder advocates oppose $80 million retention bonuses each for two top executives

    April 15, 2025 at 12:04 AM

    David Solomon jets around the world -- and to his luxury Bahamas retreat -- on a $70 million Gulfstream G650ER, one of two Goldman private planes.

    Read more →

    [Left to right: Scott Bessent, Chuck Schwab and Donald Trump: Charles Schwab has been waiting for 40 years for what Trump did over the last month.
    Read more

    Chuck Schwab stands at Trump's side (literally) and wins President's praise for supporting policies amid tariff fallout, while Schwab's chief investment strategist raises red flags

    April 12, 2025 at 12:55 AM

    Schwab co-chair intersects with Trump on policy, business [and golf,] while the company's chief investment officer Liz Ann Sonders has little good to say about government policies right now

    Read more →

    Jonathan Craig: Schwab serves more than a million multimillionaire investors.
    Read more

    Schwab finally launches alts to retail investors with $5 million, five years after initial iCapital deal, but just seven days before its CEO faces Wall Street

    April 11, 2025 at 1:33 AM

    The Westlake, Texas brokerage expresses urgency because 66% of retail assets are now high-net-worth -- with more than a million millionaires.

    Read more →

    Christian Hoffmann: We’re still not out of the woods.
    Read more

    Never mind near 10% S&P 500 snapback, the Trump tariff war baked in 'enormous wealth destruction,' and it's hardly 'over,' asset managers say

    April 10, 2025 at 2:34 AM

    Today is so much better than yesterday after stocks rallied on a tariff 'pause,' but it is still a very bad situation; the damage assessment is just starting.

    Read more →

    Bill Singer: This is the time to go for the jugular.
    Read more

    BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard show swagger, unity and 'smell blood' as they fire back at charges they perniciously colluded to advance ESG goals

    April 10, 2025 at 2:33 AM

    Shifting political winds may cause three asset managers with $26.72 trillion to 'go for the jugular,' Wall Street attorney says; not so fast, says a second securities attorney, 'There's a smoking gun here.'

    Read more →

    Ken Fisher: Trump is beyond the pale by a long shot.
    Read more

    Ken Fisher suggests to RIA client on X to close his account if he thinks he's 'childish' for saying Trump tariffs are 'stupid, wrong, arrogantly extreme'

    April 9, 2025 at 2:34 AM

    The owner and CIO of Fisher Investments was not alarmed as of last week, then changed his tune but still thinks fears over tariffs are overblown.

    Read more →

    Michael Kim: 'We will continue to invest and grow in the RIA market'
    Read more

    Envestnet quietly cleans up a mess behind take-private veil • Michael Kim is now a two-TAMP CEO • Bill Ackman scolds Trump, Lutnick for tariff overkill, alleged conflicts •

    April 8, 2025 at 1:49 AM

    Kim is now head of 'RIA' TAMP • In broad daylight, AssetMark edges closer to swallowing Adhesion • Ackman irked over ‘massive, disproportionate’ tariffs • Fisher sees market upside, if and when tariffs fail.

    Read more →

    Betterment's premium pricing shows the ROI of people.
    Read more

    Betterment trims fee despite 'no pressure,' and can still upcharge 160% over robo fee by upselling CFP humans -- more than 100% over Vanguard -- with RIA-like fees

    April 5, 2025 at 12:23 AM

    The New York robo imposed 65 basis points in 2024 on humanized $1-million-plus accounts, but is not competing with RIAs and 'never has been'

    Read more →

    Herb Morgan: '“No Cantor owner, partner or employee has ever tried to influence my macro views of the world.”
    Read more

    Cantor Fitzgerald IA CIO sends midday letter to RIAs with take that reassures on tariffs, and he assures reporter that any aligment with Howard Lutnick is coincidental

    April 4, 2025 at 12:57 AM

    The note arrived in email boxes after the market collapsed 5% today and explains tariffs were needed and negative effects should be 'very' short in duration

    Read more →

    Rich Steinmeier (left) and Wayne Bloom both need Commonwealth to succeed as a standalone brand.
    Read more

    Commonwealth and LPL CEOs are determined to share bright future after black swan HR event unlocked the opportunity

    April 3, 2025 at 1:44 AM

    Wayne Bloom and Rich Steinmeier both faced hard math after Dan Arnold's shock firing as LPL CEO, but then the numbers started to add up

    Read more →

    Walt Bettinger knows the RIA domain and 15,000 RIAs.
    Read more

    Walt Bettinger joining CD&R just four months after Schwab retirement could signal a big private-equity play brewing

    April 2, 2025 at 2:16 AM

    The ex-Schwab CEO's appointment at Focus Partners' take-private owner, suggests the private equity player is positioning for a major move.

    Read more →

    Rich Steinmeier: Commonwealth is respected throughout our industry as a standard-bearer for service excellence.
    Read more

    LPL CEO claims 'prize' 'anti-LPL' Commonwealth for just $2.7 billion, but the price will rise, experts say, to retain its advisors conditioned to know LPL as a place with subpar service, culture

    April 1, 2025 at 12:55 AM

    Only about four months into his job, Rich Steinmeier pulled off a coup, but poachers may smell blood, too.

    Read more →

    RIABiz Archives

    2026
    February|
    January
    2025
    December|
    November|
    October|
    September|
    August|
    July|
    June|
    May|
    April|
    March|
    February|
    January
    2024
    December|
    November|
    October|
    September|
    August|
    July|
    June|
    May|
    April|
    March|
    February|
    January
    2023
    December|
    November|
    October|
    September|
    August|
    July|
    June|
    May|
    April|
    March|
    February|
    January
    2022
    December|
    November|
    October|
    September|
    August|
    July|
    June|
    May|
    April|
    March|
    February|
    January
    2021
    December|
    November|
    October|
    September|
    August|
    July|
    June|
    May|
    April|
    March|
    February|
    January
    2020
    December|
    November|
    October|
    September|
    August|
    July|
    June|
    May|
    April|
    March|
    February|
    January
    2019
    December|
    November|
    October|
    September|
    August|
    July|
    June|
    May|
    April|
    March|
    February|
    January
    2018
    December|
    November|
    October|
    September|
    August|
    July|
    June|
    May|
    April|
    March|
    February|
    January
    2017
    December|
    November|
    October|
    September|
    August|
    July|
    June|
    May|
    April|
    March|
    February|
    January
    2016
    December|
    November|
    October|
    September|
    August|
    July|
    June|
    May|
    April|
    March|
    February|
    January
    2015
    December|
    November|
    October|
    September|
    August|
    July|
    June|
    May|
    April|
    March|
    February|
    January
    2014
    December|
    November|
    October|
    September|
    August|
    July|
    June|
    May|
    April|
    March|
    February|
    January
    2013
    December|
    November|
    October|
    September|
    August|
    July|
    June|
    May|
    April|
    March|
    February|
    January
    2012
    December|
    November|
    October|
    September|
    August|
    July|
    June|
    May|
    April|
    March|
    February|
    January
    2011
    December|
    November|
    October|
    September|
    August|
    July|
    June|
    May|
    April|
    March|
    February|
    January
    2010
    December|
    November|
    October|
    September|
    August|
    July|
    June|
    May|
    April|
    March|
    February|
    January
    2009
    December|
    November|
    October|
    September|
    August|
    July

    RIABiz Directory

    The Industry Sourcebook for RIAs

       |    LISTING

    Add Your Listing

    RIABiz Directory sponsored by:

    Directory Sponsor Logo

    White Paper Postings


    Common Tags


    Recent Articles


    Popular Writers


    RIABiz logo

    RIABiz

    About Us
    Contact
    Subscribe
    Advertise

    Directory

    Archives

    401(k) Stories
    Breakaway Stories
    Conferences
    ETFs
    Hybrid RIA
    RIA Compliance
    RIA Custodians
    Robo-Advisors
    TAMPs
    Women of Wealth Management
    People Moves
    Technology

    Connect

    RIABiz, Mill Valley, California
    Copyright © 2009-2026 RIABiz Inc. All rights reserved.