Advisors archive
Every Advisors story, newest first. 855 stories
13 stories
- 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.
- Tax & estate planning
Social Security sets 3.6% COLA for 2027, lifting benefits in January
The adjustment covers more than 72 million recipients and raises the average retired-worker benefit to $2,170 a month.
- Tax & estate planning
Donor-advised funds hold $328 billion as advisors weigh income-spike and complex-asset gifts
Sponsors assess complex gifts case by case; advisors should confirm capabilities first.
- Tax & estate planning
WealthManagement.com column argues client pride and leverage worsen premium-financed insurance losses
The author recommends independent scrutiny rather than automatic unwinding for troubled premium-financed arrangements.
- Practice management
Goldman Sachs survey: 36% of workers earning more than $300,000 live paycheck to paycheck
Two advisors told InvestmentNews they work through liabilities, benefits and reserves before touching a portfolio for high-income clients.
- Practice management
InvestmentNews columnist splits RIA sale reasons into founder readiness or capped growth
The first-person column says most RIAs have an intention problem rather than a growth problem, and the writer's firm is exploring a first acquisition.
- Practice management
Logan Paul's $16.5 million Pikachu sale pushes trading-card collections into planning meetings
Florida planner Thomas Ruggie's 10-point scorecard covers documentation, insurance and exit planning.
- Tax & estate planning
NIL pay comes as 1099 income with nothing withheld, Dynasty's LaPorta says
A Wealth Solutions Report Q&A with four advisors covers taxes, budgeting and LLC formation for college athletes earning NIL money.
- Tax & estate planning
Ed Slott's top-10 RMD mistakes: rollovers, aggregation and a double-RMD trap
Delaying a first RMD to April 1 means two distributions that year, one of ten errors on an Oct. 14 list.
- Tax & estate planning
Treasury rules auto-enroll every eligible U.S. child in a Trump Account
Kitces' Oct. 14 analysis says families must claim the auto-opened account to control it, and that auto-enrollment widens the pool for charitable gifts.
- Practice management
Financial Planning column: why advisors often abandon AI note-takers after a month
The author, writing from decades of coaching senior operators, blames habit and the brain's caution about anything new rather than the software itself.
- The Advisor's Note
Connecticut Wealth Management hires Subatomic for five-year AI build
The $5.2 billion RIA expects a first phase before the end of 2026 and says the system is intended to help maintain its 35-to-1 client-to-advisor ratio.
- Products & portfolios
Ballentine Income Opportunities Fund III files Form D with no total offering amount
The pooled fund names Ballentine Partners, LLC and Ballentine Funds GP, LLC as related persons and reports $0 sold to date.
13 stories
- Recruiting & transitions
State Street launches Apex-powered RIA custody unit for $1 billion-plus RIAs
The Boston bank is targeting RIAs managing more than $1 billion with the service, re-entering a custody business it left five years ago, RIABiz reported.
- Practice management
FINRA Q4 agenda lists 21 priorities and four SEC rule proposals
The regulator says it has advanced more than 20 SEC rule filings since April 2025 and plans an effective date for its collective investment trust exemption.
- Practice management
OpenArc and SageSpring build in-house advisor training programs
Financial Planning reports a three-year OpenArc class and a two-year SageSpring mentorship as alternatives to sending new advisors out alone.
- Recruiting & transitions
Eight Raymond James brokers register $1.4B RIA, keep custody at firm
Seven of the eight advisors are keeping brokerage licenses through Kingswood Capital Partners while the new firm will continue to custody with the St. Petersburg, Florida-based firm.
- Tax & estate planning
Cerulli: 46% of 401(k) participants want anytime withdrawals, 40% a personalized retirement plan
The report also finds 39% of participants want guaranteed monthly payments that last after their savings are used up.
- Practice management
BNY INSITE conference poll: 67% have AI budgets, 65% lack a metric
The Oct. 13 WealthManagement.com column argues connecting advisory technology matters more than adding it.
- Succession & selling a firm
WealthManagement.com column argues sell-and-stay unblocks advisor succession plans
The column says identity, not valuation or terms, stalls advisor succession, and a phased structure separates an executed plan from one on a whiteboard.
- Practice management
Anthropic announces Claude plugin connecting to Schwab, Orion and advisor systems
The plugin connects to providers including Schwab, Orion, Addepar, BlackRock, Envestnet, iCapital, Wealthbox, Wealth.com and Zocks, with advisors choosing which services to connect during setup.
- Succession & selling a firm
September RIA deals: median acquired firm held $489.5M in assets
Two transactions accounted for 68.3% of the month's $38.16 billion in acquired-firm AUM, per Wealth Solutions Report.
- Succession & selling a firm
Build RIA leadership and operating structure before a sale, Wealth Solutions Report says
The article recommends a future organizational chart to identify missing roles and capabilities before M&A.
- The Advisor's Note
Carlyle takes minority stake in $52B Prime Capital Financial
Prime Capital Financial says 170 advisors hold equity and manage 95% of its assets, and the recapitalization marks the exit of prior backer Abry Partners.
- Practice management
Gunder Wealth pays for 60 virtual assistant hours monthly instead of a full-time hire
Ashlee deSteiger tells the Financial Advisor Success podcast she paused new client onboarding for nine months to review performance metrics.
- Recruiting & transitions
Wirehouse recruiting packages reach up to 425% of revenue, Diamond report says
The first-half transition report counted 932 experienced-advisor recruits against 1,449 departures at the four wirehouses.
10 stories
- Products & portfolios
MassMutual makes Flourish Cash available to its advisor network
MassMutual said Sept. 2 it had offloaded its controlling stake in Flourish to Aquiline, retaining a minority interest.
- Practice management
Behavioral finance is cognitive psychology applied to finance, Klontz and Horwitz argue
The article lists four client behaviors it calls ubiquitous and the cognitive biases it says explain them.
- Practice management
Twelve states and DC impose estate taxes; five levy inheritance taxes
Maryland is the only state with both taxes; Washington's estate-tax exemption is $3 million, versus $5.49 million in Hawaii.
- Recruiting & transitions
Indivisible, launched by former Merrill executives, adds $1.1 billion RBC team in Baltimore
The group, operating as Rosenwald Private Wealth, is at least the ninth practice to join Indivisible since its early-2025 launch.
- Succession & selling a firm
Carlyle took a minority stake in Prime Capital Financial, where 170 advisors own equity
The $52 billion firm says 95% of its assets are managed by advisors who hold equity, and prior investor Abry Partners exited in the recapitalization.
- Tax & estate planning
Treasury auto-opens about 60 million Trump Accounts and allows foundation stock gifts
Auto Accounts hold the $1,000 federal contribution and tax-exempt gifts; a parent must claim the Auto Account before individual or employer money can go in.
- Practice management
Kitces article: prospects want the firm's fees and minimums, testimonials on websites
Sydney Squires describes two rounds of screening, and a cited report finds even referred prospects leave a site that cannot answer their questions.
- The Advisor's Note
Wells Fargo Advisors FiNet recruits 11-advisor Ameriprise team to form Orchard Financial Group
Michael Kawase, Eric Smutko, Audre Schmedes and Anthony Perez move from Ameriprise to Wells Fargo FiNet.
- Practice management
Pathstone plans 77 client events in 2026 as assets reach $200 billion
The firm credits the events for referrals, while acquisitions account for much of the asset growth.
- Tax & estate planning
Northwestern Mutual study: 83% of boomers, Silent Generation prefer aging at home
The study projects an eight-hour-a-day home health aide at $105,120 out of pocket in 2026, rising to $552,232 by 2060.
1 story
- The Advisor's Note
Orion quotes vendors up to $20,000 a month for platform data
Vendors told WealthTech Today the quoted fee reaches $20,000 a month, while Fidelity and BNY Pershing are also changing platform access terms.
3 stories
- Recruiting & transitions
BNY Pershing retires Wove and shifts RIA platform reset to Adam Vos
RIABiz reports the successor platform has no name and describes Adam Vos, Pershing's new RIA head, as unproven in custody.
- Recruiting & transitions
Fidelity plans $100 million RIA custody minimum with June 2027 deadline
Rival custodians are already competing for the few hundred firms below the planned $100 million threshold, up from $15 million, Kitces reports.
- Practice management
XYPN AdviceTech judges press six finalists on fit with existing systems
Six vendors demoed roughly seven minutes each at XYPN LIVE in San Diego on September 30, and the panel's questions turned on data access and CRM overlap.