Advisors archive
Every Advisors story, newest first. 916 stories
12 stories
- Tax & estate planning
Beneficiary RMD math turns on death date and required beginning date
A 2026 death gives a non-eligible designated beneficiary a 10-year window running 2027 through 2036.
- Practice management
Zocks AI tools reach LPL's more than 32,000 advisers
Founders Financial Securities adds the tools to its TRU Enterprise OS technology suite for all member partners.
- Practice management
Nevis raises $70M Series B with Schwab and EQT backing
Schwab Advisor Services head Jon Beatty says the investment and partnership expand the AI vendor's ecosystem; total funding reaches $110 million.
- Practice management
Advisors should swap broad referral asks for specific prompts
A client who can articulate the advisor's value makes introductions easier, Wealth Solutions Report reports.
- Tax & estate planning
Some advisors find outside assets near 20% of client wealth
WealthManagement.com says legacy annuities and equity compensation may be reviewed less often outside advisory relationships.
- Practice management
Maryland board chooses employer plan over state program
LPL Financial's Greg Bailey described the board's choice, PLANADVISER — Advice reported.
- Recruiting & transitions
Recruiting scoreboard: Charles Schwab leads August asset growth among public wealth firms
Month-end client assets, net new assets, advisor counts and recruited assets for Charles Schwab, Raymond James and Stifel, from each firm's own SEC filings.
- Practice management
Only 17% of firms make the referral ask a defined step
F2 Strategy's August survey of 30 firms found new clients drove 63% of organic growth, with referrals as the top tactic.
- Tax & estate planning
Roth conversion arithmetic favors paying tax from taxable assets
A Journal of Financial Planning paper runs a $100,000 conversion at 25% to show what the payment source does to the Roth balance.
- Practice management
Centralized AI governance scores 2.5x higher on AI maturity
The Cerulli survey of 68 RIAs, run with Vista Equity Partners, found governance outweighs AUM and tech spend as a predictor.
- The Advisor's Note
Raymond James names Kirk Bell to lead independent contractor unit
Bell starts April 1, 2027, and Raymond James also named Scott Curtis COO and said Tarek Helal becomes chief strategy officer.
- Practice management
Osaic adds $576M Stifel book; founder's daughter cites succession help
Kintra hires a $355 million Commonwealth practice, and Merrill raises its 2027 growth award to $7.5 million in revenue.
1 story
- Practice management
Cybersecurity expert Mike Piper says AI makes fraud cheap at scale
On Morningstar's The Long View, he says automated research lets attackers profile ordinary clients, so clean grammar no longer signals a fake email.
2 stories
- The Advisor's Note
Betterment survey: 75% of advised investors use AI
3% of the 1,001 surveyed would consider an AI replacement advisor, Betterment Advisor Solutions found.
- The Advisor's Note
SEC clears Finra rule letting broker-dealers market projected returns
Finra's Rule 2210 ban becomes conditional, but approval conditions and the effective date are not specified.
11 stories
- Practice management
Smaller RIAs need a closer look at owning their data
Financial Planning says small firms should look harder at owning and warehousing data and treat the exit strategy as important as the way in.
- Practice management
Cerulli paper ties best-interest expectations to 73% satisfied and not seeking a new advisor
A separate 48% of the second group said they were satisfied but open to considering other options, and 4% were dissatisfied, according to the white paper.
- Succession & selling a firm
Multi-owner firms with $100M–$1B in assets draw 48% higher multiple
An FP Transitions author writing in Wealth Solutions Report asks owners whether growth reached margins and whether the firm could run without them.
- Recruiting & transitions
Freehold Wealth moves $576M practice to Osaic from Stifel
Mary Steele, the founders' daughter, cited Osaic's succession-planning resources as a reason for the move.
- Practice management
Gen Z trust in AI as primary advice source halves to 10%
The KPMG/SIFMA survey of 2,123 investors finds 43% say better digital tools would not prompt a switch, up from 35% in 2025.
- Practice management
Orion to charge for API access, Salesforce to meter AI calls
A Practifi executive argues every pass-through path ends with the advisory firm paying more for the same integration.
- Succession & selling a firm
Banker, not broker, needed to model PE rollover and earnouts
InvestmentNews column says the adviser a founder hires determines whether earnout and rollover terms get modeled before signing.
- Practice management
SEI, FinTurk, Powerlytics add tools for valuation, email, heirs
SEI's portal screens partners anonymously; FinTurk AI email needs advisor approval; Powerlytics maps clients' relatives.
- Practice management
49 Financial designed tax-led fractional family office
The Austin hybrid RIA puts CPA-led planning and estate and insurance coordination behind the client's advisor, founder Travis Penfield says.
- Products & portfolios
Franklin Templeton's Stanhope puts alpha ahead of tax in long-short
He says advisors who lead with harvesting risk client disappointment as direct indexing accounts carry embedded gains.
- The Advisor's Note
Merrill raises 2027 growth-award bar to $7.5M and 4 net households
The core grid stays flat, and the $150 million Elite Award becomes three categories paying a 50% premium.
14 stories
- Practice management
Vanguard auto-enrolls $1 million–$10 million clients in Flagship
The letters went out last week; outside funds held at Vanguard now count toward the $1 million minimum.
- Practice management
SEC approves FINRA rule letting broker-dealers market projected returns
The approval creates a conditional exception to Rule 2210's ban on performance projections, after NASAA said it could not support the change without stronger investor-protection guardrails.
- Practice management
Merrill raises 2027 growth-award bar to $7.5 million and a net four new households
The firm leaves its core grid unchanged and replaces the $150 million Elite Award with three categories that each pay a 50% premium to the growth award.
- Products & portfolios
Blackstone private wealth AUM hits $330B as distributable earnings fall 9%
The firm raised nearly $9 billion across its private wealth platform in the third quarter, while BCRED redemption requests stayed elevated.
- Recruiting & transitions
Merrill to add targeted 2027 advisor bonuses, keeps core grid
Financial Planning reported the firm will hold its basic compensation grid in place while seeking to boost recruiting.
- Products & portfolios
Evergreen fund auction could offer an exit when redemptions are prorated
March unsolicited tenders for oversubscribed private credit BDC shares averaged a 26% discount and drew little interest, per WealthManagement.com.
- Tax & estate planning
Treasury and IRS replace retirement plan correction framework and create IRA correction program
Revenue Procedure 2026-34 is effective today; Revenue Procedure 2026-33 begins May 1, 2027.
- Practice management
EP Wealth's Brian Parker says organic growth drives firm value, not deal metrics
On an RIA Edge panel, Snowden Lane's Alison Burkett described growth as every employee's job and tied it to better client service rather than a sales push.
- Products & portfolios
ACORE Capital launches advisor wealth platform led by Mick Manning
The $17 billion real estate manager will offer real estate credit and equity strategies to high-net-worth clients through financial advisors.
- Tax & estate planning
Higher rates can cut closely held business valuations and open an estate-gift window
A lower supportable fair market value lets an owner move more ownership out of the estate while using less lifetime gift and estate tax exemption, though company facts still drive the appraisal.
- Products & portfolios
Morningstar backs Vanguard VXUS on low fee and 8,500-stock index
Analysts attribute much of the fund's 67-basis-point five-year edge over its average foreign large-blend peer to its low cost.
- Practice management
Multi-owner firms with $100M–$1B in assets had 48% higher EBITDA multiple, Wealth Solutions Report column says
The column's author, writing from FP Transitions, urges owners to ask whether growth reached margins and whether the firm could run without them.
- Recruiting & transitions
Kintra Wealth adds Scott Seymour's $355M practice to advisor-owned platform
Seymour, registered with Commonwealth for seven years, joins as partner and will use Kintra's shared operations, compliance and investment staff.
- Practice management
A $2.8B RIA's 18-month AI rollout delivered speed and a 'probably' on value
An Oct. 22 letter to Wealth Solutions Report's Dear Ryan column says the unnamed firm evaluated 11 vendors, selected three, and saw faster work but no reimagined client-service model.