Practice management: archive
Every Practice management story in Advisors, newest first. 313 stories
12 stories
Pontera floats itself as AI's trust layer for 401(k) access
The 401(k) software firm says agent-to-agent finance needs a validating intermediary, while Schwab says it is preparing Charley agents for its millions of clients.
Aquiline buys control of Flourish from MassMutual as Phase II lending rollout nears
MassMutual retains a stake described as significant in the cash platform used by 1,300 RIAs; no purchase price is disclosed.
Envestnet's Vestmark deal promises advisors no forced platform migrations
The purchase, estimated by analysts at $500 million to $1 billion, arrives six days after Envestnet pledged $1 billion to rebuild the platform advisors already use.
Fidelity backs Savvy Wealth's RIA custody platform, expected in mid-2027
Savvy says multi-billion-AUM RIA prospects pulled the launch forward; Fidelity will collect client revenue and share a portion back.
Pontera launches non-discretionary 401(k) service as password sharing stays blocked
Advisors can advise, bill and report on held-away plan accounts while clients log in and place trades themselves.
WealthManagement.com report catalogs obstacles to advising 401(k) participants
The report cites record-keeper data feeds most broker-dealers and RIAs do not get frequently, 1990s-era record-keeper technology, and advisors who would rather not meet with participants.
FiComm survey finds 45% of investors chose an advisor without a referral
The New Growth Equation report puts the share at 50% among investors with $5 million or more.
Dynasty tells RIA founders to set share classes and buyback rights on day one
The firm says it began with several share classes 15 years ago and has since simplified them as the business changed.
Schwab Advisor Services becomes first RIA custodian to use Anthropic's Claude
Schwab says it is the only RIA custodian in Anthropic's early release, though Vanguard is on the charter list and says it will not use Claude for custody.
Mariner CEO Marty Bicknell budgets $175M for 700 AI bots over five years
RIABiz reports Bicknell co-owns Humanity Labs, whose agentic AI will handle back-office work in a plan aimed at absorbing acquired RIAs faster.
SEC and five other regulators warn on impersonation and relationship investment scams
The joint bulletin, issued for World Investor Week’s tenth edition, names two scam categories and directs investors to registration checks and Investor.gov.
Cerulli and Morningstar: 63% of surveyed advisers see DC plans as a prospecting priority
A separate Crisil Coalition Greenwich study, also published this morning, finds affluent investors combining adviser-led and self-directed accounts, a mix that may complicate the rollover handoff.
5 stories
Northwestern Mutual survey: 61% expect long-term care, 54% have not planned for it
Respondents who worked with an adviser were about twice as likely to report having a long-term care plan, and 73% preferred receiving care at home.
Boise advisor Alex Lundgren turned live AM radio into a Micron client niche
Roughly half of her 187 households work at Micron or large area hospitals, a concentration built on plan-document fluency and callers who became clients.
Compound Planning runs $5 billion on software its own engineers write
Co-founder Alex Farman-Farmaian explains what the ten-person team built, and where the RIA still buys.
Anthropic announces Claude for Financial Advisors; provider list remains unnamed
Kitces's #AdvisorTech column reports the plugin connects to existing advisor tools to run tasks like pre-meeting summaries, without naming which providers are on the list.
Ascensus launches a participant-referral workflow for plan advisers
The recordkeeper says the tool links 401(k) savers with the adviser serving their employer plan, across a book of more than 16 million participants and $1.3 trillion in administered assets.
1 story
SEC proposes ending pay-to-play rule that prompted many advisers to ban all employee contributions
Rule 206(4)-5 barred compensated advisory services to government clients for two years after certain political contributions; firm-wide employee bans often went further.
6 stories
SIFMA panel says advisers can build an audience without becoming finfluencers
Advisers from Merrill Lynch, RBC, Oppenheimer and Edward Jones said expertise alone no longer draws clients, but viral content is the wrong goal.
House Democrats introduce three retirement bills widening fiduciary advice and plan standing to sue
The package would count commissions from any source as compensation that triggers fiduciary status on a rollover recommendation.
SEC proposes custody relief for RIAs with discretionary trading authority
The 760-page proposal would drop written-agreement and outside-exam requirements for RIAs that meet three conditions.
OpenAI agents probed SEC sites and posted public data; compliance consultants see a regulator gap
An SEC spokesperson said no nonpublic data was released, and two compliance consultants point to the agency's backend as the exposure.
SEC proposes custody amendments, acknowledging adviser self-custody for crypto
The statement accompanying the proposal argues that rules built for paper certificates cannot govern assets recorded on a distributed ledger.
Trilogy Financial launches an affiliated tax and consulting business
The Irvine RIA, with more than $5 billion in advisory and brokerage assets across 10 regional offices, says the new affiliate will prepare returns and help advisors connect clients with tax professionals.
4 stories
Ascensus launches a participant-referral workflow for plan advisers
The platform links 401(k) savers with the adviser serving their plan across a book of more than 16 million participants and $1.3 trillion in administered assets.
FPA and Snappy Kraken rebuild PlannerSearch around a 12-question client quiz
The revamped FPA directory sorts prospects into four client mindsets based on financial well-being and readiness to engage.
Feathery co-founder pitches firm-wide AI workflow redesign to small RIAs
Zack Khan says the choice is between single-user assistants and rebuilding workflows across a firm; the sponsored episode offers no client results.
Kitces & Carl's 200th episode: how advisors explain a fee when the value is intangible
The hosts trace advice's move from product sales to investment management to goal-focused life planning, and why the newest layer resists a quick fee explanation.
2 stories
Pontera pitches an AI trust layer as Schwab prepares its Charley agent
The 401(k) software firm says agent-to-agent finance needs a validating intermediary, and its long dispute with Fidelity over credential sharing remains unresolved.
NASAA issues investor advisory on finfluencer pay, red flags and registration
The advisory explains how social media finance promoters are paid and what disclosure and registration rules apply to paid promotion or fee-based advice.
4 stories
Northwestern Mutual opens a 40-specialist family office platform to its advisors
Advisors pay a retainer for access to 40-plus in-house legal, tax, estate and philanthropy specialists aimed at clients with at least $50 million in net worth.
CD Valet sells advisors $500-a-month access to its CD shoppers
The Seattle Bank affiliate says 150,000 to 200,000 investors compare CD rates on its site each month.
Sen. Blunt Rochester's rental housing bill would replace 27.5-year depreciation with per-unit expensing
Developers of new rental housing could deduct up to $150,000 per unit in year one, or $250,000 for projects that clear affordability tests borrowed from the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.
Ensemble Practice pay study finds advisor cash climbing, equity scarcer
The consultancy's annual survey of more than 170 independent advisory firms pairs 39% profit margins with 3.7% organic growth, a 10-year low.
5 stories
Betterment Advisor Solutions sets custody platform fees at 0.20% under $10 million
The tiers take effect Jan. 1, drop to 0.12% above $10 million and become negotiable above $100 million.
Ameriprise pays advisors $1,000 or a fee share to send clients to its virtual desk
Employee advisors get a one-time $1,000; independent contractors get a portion of the past year's advisory fee, and both payments require the household to stay 12 months.
A new Journal of Financial Planning paper asks how clients place themselves among 'the wealthy'
The published extract stops before any findings, but the framing gives advisors a testable question about referral maps.
Kitces research ties client service calendars to faster referral growth
Practices that ask more than once a year report 3.0% referral growth, against 5.4% for those that never ask; service calendar users add 1.1 points.
Bitwise's crypto models rebalance on Vise's engine, alongside the rest of the book
The crypto sleeve now follows the same rebalancing schedule and tax treatment as every other holding, which is the version of digital assets that scales across a book.
1 story
A 45-year veteran is selling listening as a credential
The 100,000-advisor shortfall will keep getting answered with transition checks until firms decide the discovery conversation is worth training and screening for.