Advisors archive
Every Advisors story, newest first. 858 stories
2 stories
- The Advisor's Note
Ensemble survey: RIAs above $1B lost 4.3% of clients in 2023, below $500M 1.4%
Philip Palaveev ties the 2.9-point gap to client-service employees who hold no equity stake.
- Recruiting & transitions
Fidelity tells sub-$100M custody clients to move as Schwab stops short of a promise
The threshold counts assets held at Fidelity rather than total firm AUM, and Schwab cites the 11,000 micro-practices it already serves while stopping short of a promise.
10 stories
- Products & portfolios
BofA strategists say easy money from AI capex trade is largely made
The Monday note says positioning in AI-linked beneficiaries and white-collar consumption themes already reflects both sides of the trade, and it recommends a selective pivot.
- Practice management
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.
- Practice management
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.
- Tax & estate planning
SEC, FINRA, CFTC, NASAA, NFA and SIPC issue a joint investor bulletin
The bulletin pairs market-volatility planning with warnings that AI is making impersonation scams harder to detect and directs investors to registration checks.
- Practice management
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.
- Tax & estate planning
Coastal 360 and Sovereign Financial use projections to show wealthy retirees they can spend
Alicia Fuller and Charles Failla walk clients through cash-flow projections before spending; one preceded a $150,000 world trip.
- Succession & selling a firm
Ensemble Practice survey finds 4.3% client attrition at RIAs above $1 billion in 2023
Philip Palaveev contrasts 4.3% at the largest firms with 1.4% below $500 million and points to service by employees who hold no equity stake.
- Practice management
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.
- The Advisor's Note
SEC proposes repealing two-year pay-to-play ban on government advisory work
The proposal would delete Rule 206(4)-5, the federal timeout that led many advisers to ban all employee political contributions.
- Practice management
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
- Practice management
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.
1 story
- The Advisor's Note
Pontera pitches AI trust layer after OpenAI agents probe SEC sites
The 401(k) software firm's credential-sharing dispute with Fidelity is unresolved as Schwab prepares its own agent.
13 stories
- Tax & estate planning
Prudential survey: only 14% of retirees and pre-retirees feel at ease spending savings
Financial planning improved spending confidence, the study found, while 61% of respondents with more than $500,000 in investable assets reported discomfort about discretionary spending.
- Practice management
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.
- Practice management
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.
- Products & portfolios
RIA CIOs lean on short-duration bonds as Treasury yields reach two-decade highs
Open Arc has trimmed spread exposure and kept dry powder while Amplius moves gradually from underweight duration toward a neutral stance.
- Practice management
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.
- Practice management
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.
- Tax & estate planning
IRS guidance sets boundaries for 351 exchanges used in ETFs
Kitces reports the deferral strategy remains viable for clients with large embedded gains; the agency flags rapid turnover, mismatched seed baskets and pre-arranged contributions.
- Tax & estate planning
Colorado voters choose between a 4.4% flat tax and an 8.4% top rate
Amendment 87 would authorize a graduated-rate income tax, with initial statutory rates of 7.4, 7.9 and 8.4 percent above $500,000, $750,000 and $1 million.
- Practice management
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.
- Practice management
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.
- The Advisor's Note
Concurrent-Spire deal keeps 30 advisor brands, adds equity after a year
Concurrent's $5.4 billion acquisition leaves Spire's teams independent under their own names, while same-day moves from UBS and Cambridge landed at independent platforms.
- Succession & selling a firm
Fidelity tells sub-$100 million RIAs to grow or move by June 2027
The notices went to affected firms, and the threshold counts assets held at Fidelity rather than total firm AUM.
- Tax & estate planning
Goldman Sachs retirement survey: 37% of respondents earning over $500,000 live paycheck to paycheck
The poll of 5,106 workers and retirees aged 45 to 75 also finds annuity demand rising, a T. Rowe Price executive said in the same briefing.
12 stories
- Tax & estate planning
SEC staff statement details Trump Account auto-enrollment and names BNY as trustee
Eligible children will have Auto Accounts established on or about Oct. 1, 2026, under IRA rules that end the year the beneficiary turns 17.
- Products & portfolios
Senate passes the Social Security Claiming Age Clarity Act, sending it to Trump
The measure would change how the SSA labels claiming ages; the 2026 benefit maximums are $2,969 a month at 62 and $5,181 at 70.
- Recruiting & transitions
Fidelity gives sub-$100M RIAs until June 2027 to find a custodian
The threshold counts assets held at Fidelity, not total firm AUM, and the notice went directly to affected firms.
- Practice management
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.
- Recruiting & transitions
Concurrent acquires Spire, a $5.4 billion RIA with 30 advisor teams
Spire's advisors keep their own brands as independent contractors, and both advisors and employees become eligible for Concurrent equity after a year.
- Recruiting & transitions
Lakewood Wealth's $170 million Ann Arbor team moves from Cambridge to LPL
The three-adviser book spans advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets; the announcement does not disclose transition terms.
- Practice management
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.
- Practice management
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.
- Succession & selling a firm
Timewise Financial's Caroline Piehl describes succeeding her father as managing partner
On the Talent Stack podcast, Piehl says she retained the firm's integrated tax and wealth planning model while changing technology and investment strategy gradually.
- Products & portfolios
Ed Slott: the QCD cap survives an RMD and a Roth conversion
The 2026 limit is $111,000, and Slott tells a 10-year-rule inherited-IRA beneficiary to withdraw above the RMD before the final year.
- Practice management
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.
- Tax & estate planning
SEC proposes exam route to accredited investor status
The Sept. 30 rulemaking would also loosen interval-fund redemptions and cap performance fees, which would change how advisors size a private credit sleeve.
1 story
- Practice management
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.