Advisors archive
Every Advisors story, newest first. 854 stories
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- Tax & estate planning
Morningstar research puts retirement shortfall risk at 40%-45%
Excluding long-term-care costs lowers that figure by about 25%, according to a Morningstar article and podcast excerpt.
2 stories
- The Advisor's Note
Mercer Advisors: roughly half of H1 2026 net new assets came from custodian referrals
S&P says the fees paid to custodian partners could limit Mercer's margin expansion, the cost side of a channel the firm says supplies half its growth.
- Products & portfolios
Morningstar says the ideal high-return, low-correlation ETF does not exist
Cheaper access to foreign markets pushed US and foreign stock correlations higher since the 1990s, the analysis finds.
12 stories
- Succession & selling a firm
MarshBerry tallies record 294 U.S. wealth advisory deals through September
Private-equity-backed acquirers took 72% of announced deals through Q3; the ten most active buyers took one-third of all announced transactions.
- Recruiting & transitions
Ameriprise adds three RBC teams with $1.2 billion; Wells Fargo adds $900 million
The RBC teams cited Ameriprise's technology platform and planning capabilities; Raymond James added a $245 million UBS team in Paramus, New Jersey.
- Practice management
Nationwide survey: 56% of investors anxious about midterms' effect on savings
Forty percent of investors changed their retirement savings or portfolio ahead of the midterms, and 73% want an adviser to explain the election’s financial impact.
- Practice management
Docupace launches Next 1.0; Focus Financial names Nevis its AI platform
Docupace says existing workflows and document history carry forward, while Focus made an undisclosed but “significant investment” in Nevis.
- Practice management
DeepVest launches PlanLab, taking its AI planning tool out of beta
The tool pairs an AI assistant with deterministic calculators for Social Security claiming, Roth conversions, RMDs and gifting, and can import an advisor's existing plan.
- Recruiting & transitions
Rockefeller hires $1.2 billion Truist team in Naples, Florida
The Kellam Group produced $7 million in revenue on $1.2 billion of client assets, per a source familiar with the move.
- Tax & estate planning
IRS starts automatic refunds for more than 50,000 adoption tax credit carryforward filers
Notices generally go out within 30 days of the account adjustment, and the agency says no amended return is needed.
- Tax & estate planning
Advised investors ask AI more and verify less, Evergreen.ai study finds
Among advised respondents who used AI for money questions, 41.9% acted without checking against another source or a professional, nearly triple the 14.4% rate among unadvised users.
- The Advisor's Note
Schwab raises tax-aware long-short account minimum to $10 million
The accounts represented $60.7 billion of Schwab's $187.9 billion in client margin loans at the end of September.
- Succession & selling a firm
RIA deal count falls 17% as $5B sellers set record, DeVoe says
Mercer Advisors refinanced $1.9 billion in a Goldman Sachs-led loan, cutting the rate by 1.75 points and saying the savings will fund acquisitions.
- Practice management
FPA and Allianz: 74% of surveyed planners will spend more time per client relationship
The June survey of 387 planners also found 67% expect to evolve their business model; those with under five years of experience were more likely than veterans to say so.
- Products & portfolios
All Magnificent Seven companies fall short of a 1.5°C climate pathway, Morningstar says
Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft face heightened climate transition risk as operators of hyperscale data centers, Morningstar says
20 stories
- Recruiting & transitions
Schwab Advisor Services net new assets rise 47% in Q3
CEO Rick Wurster drew a contrast with Fidelity after Fidelity told sub-$100 million custody clients to move by June 2027.
- Products & portfolios
Schwab raised tax-aware long-short minimum to $10M from $1M
The custodian earlier limited how much of an RIA's assets could go into the accounts, which accounted for $60.7 billion of $187.9 billion in client margin loans at the end of September.
- Tax & estate planning
Focus Partners Wealth’s Jeffrey Levine tells advisors to keep college savings in 529 plans
Distributions from Trump Accounts are generally taxable at 18, while 529 withdrawals for college are tax-free, Levine says.
- Tax & estate planning
F&G survey: 75% of pre-retirees weigh delaying retirement
WTW's survey the same day found the share of U.S. employees who felt financially secure fell to 36% from 46% in 2019.
- Succession & selling a firm
Mercer Advisors refinances $1.9 billion in first broadly syndicated loan
The seven-year term loan and $340 million revolver, led by Goldman Sachs, cut the rate by 1.75 points; Mercer says savings will fund acquisitions.
- Practice management
Advisor Growth Strategies survey finds 28% of RIA firms plan to add staff because of AI
Eight percent plan for less hiring, and most firms said AI has not changed hiring plans or they are unsure.
- Tax & estate planning
Social Security retirement trust fund 2032 exhaustion date holds; funding gap widens to 4.42%
Without congressional action, exhaustion would cut retirement benefits about 22%, Morningstar reports.
- Tax & estate planning
Washington voters to decide in November whether to block 9.9% tax on income above $1 million
The tax is not scheduled to take effect until 2028, and for some Seattle earners the combined top state and local rate could reach 18.037%.
- Practice management
IWI survey finds certification awareness higher among clients who refer
The Investments & Wealth Institute's 2026 client research polled 1,000 U.S. investors with at least $500,000 in household investable assets who work with an advisor.
- Practice management
WealthManagement.com: Judge conferences by audience fit, not crowd size
The article says the spend is justified by a defined objective, from qualified sales conversations to product launches.
- Practice management
Triad's compliance chief says onboard Anthropic's Claude like a new employee
The framework runs vendor due diligence, a named AI policy owner, approved-user lists and supervised logs for Claude for Financial Advisors, WealthManagement.com reports.
- Tax & estate planning
Ed Slott's mailbag: hospice client, 52, can qualify for IRA penalty exception
A physician certification that the illness is reasonably expected to result in death within 84 months is required.
- Succession & selling a firm
AmeriFlex, Genesis execs: Name successor before client handoff
In an Oct. 15 Wealth Solutions Report roundup, they describe identifying a successor early so clients know them before transition.
- Succession & selling a firm
DeVoe counts 77 third-quarter RIA deals, down 17%; a record year needs 79 in Q4
Piper Sandler counted 89 third-quarter deals, down from 93, and says deal activity has not slowed.
- Practice management
Evertern Wealth sends advisors to meet clients as seasonal stays lengthen
The Naples firm says clients split the year across several states and weeks abroad, and it reported $1.6 billion in regulatory assets across 1,153 accounts.
- Practice management
Wealthy U.S. investors' interest in advisor guidance more than doubles, UBS survey finds
Eighty-four percent of respondents also say they want more guidance than usual from their advisor during an election year.
- Tax & estate planning
Hybrid clients are 67% more likely to consider leaving their advisor, Greenwich finds
About 22% of affluent investors use both a full-service advisor and a self-directed account, and the study puts their average age at 63.
- The Advisor's Note
Morgan Stanley reports $15.2 billion in alternative net flows
Fitch shows nontraded BDC redemption requests at 9.8% while the funds still cap quarterly repurchases at 5% of shares.
- Practice management
Kitces & Carl argue an irrevocable decision can beat a reversible one
Episode 201, published October 15, suggests asking what a client would do if the default option disappeared.
- Tax & estate planning
IRS Notice 2026-62 treats one 351 ETF conversion sequence as taxable
The guidance expresses no view on funds that keep assets matching their strategy, and Baird's Steffen says sound conversions remain viable.
5 stories
- Tax & estate planning
IRS guidance targets abusive 351 ETF conversions; Baird's Steffen says sound deals remain viable
Notice 2026-62 and companion Rev. Rul. 2026-20, issued Sept. 28, treat one seeding-and-redemption sequence as a taxable exchange while expressing no view on funds that keep assets matching their strategy.
- Products & portfolios
Morgan Stanley posts $15.2B in alt net flows as wirehouses push alts and AI
InvestmentNews coverage names Wells Fargo alongside Merrill and Morgan Stanley among the wirehouses expanding alternatives and AI tools for advisors.
- Practice management
Map client task flow before an RIA operations manual, WealthManagement.com column argues
A firm should be able to name, in order and under ten seconds, who handles each step of a $20,000 client withdrawal.
- Tax & estate planning
One in six $25M clients have no estate plan, will or trust
A WealthManagement.com column cites surveys showing two in five wealthy individuals lack a comprehensive estate plan and few affluent investors get charitable planning advice.
- Tax & estate planning
A WealthManagement.com column says hotel estate plans must transfer operating authority, not just ownership
The column breaks succession into three transfers: ownership, decision rights and operating authority.