Advisors archive
Every Advisors story, newest first. 859 stories
12 stories
- 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.
- Products & portfolios
SEC weighs three proposals to widen retail access to private markets
The Sept. 30 open-meeting agenda covers performance fees for advisers, closed-end fund repurchase offers, and accredited-investor credentials.
- Products & portfolios
SEC proposes an exam-based path to accredited investor status
The three active commissioners voted unanimously to open the change to public comment, adding a FINRA-administered test and several professional credentials to the definition that governs private-market investing.
- Tax & estate planning
IRS plans guidance on trades used to harvest losses against ordinary income
Currency bets and equity-swap-and-futures combinations are among the structures the IRS named in Monday's notice, which bars no trade yet.
- Tax & estate planning
Butler researchers pitch a flexible 3% rule as a 4% withdrawal alternative
The Butler paper pairs a fixed, inflation-adjusted baseline with performance-based withdrawals, while advisors say taxes, RMDs and client behavior still shape the plan.
- Practice management
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.
- Recruiting & transitions
A $1.3 billion UBS duo joins Ascend Advisory Group in Dublin, Ohio
Jeffrey Cullman and Bruce Holt join a Dublin, Ohio practice that held $2.5 billion as of December, while the hiring report cites their team at both $1.3 billion and $1 billion.
- Recruiting & transitions
Rockefeller adds Truist's $6.2 million Piedmont Wealth Partners team in Charlotte
The $1 billion team's three principals all came to Truist through the BB&T side.
- Tax & estate planning
A 0.5%-of-AGI charitable deduction floor takes effect in 2026, and bunching offsets it
Kitces explains how a donor-advised fund lets clients pay the floor once instead of annually, and when the 2/37ths reduction applies.
- The Advisor's Note
Goldman survey finds fewer Americans increasing retirement savings as Gen X lags
The share reducing savings rose to 14% from 8%, and Gen X posted the lowest on-track reading at 49%.
- Products & portfolios
Blue Sky's BSC Secondaries II sold out at $13.2 million
The September 29 Form D batch carried two secondaries vehicles, a direct lending fund and a credit risk sharing fund, with three of the four reporting no capital raised.
- The Advisor's Note
Goldman survey: Share increasing retirement savings falls to 39% from 55%
The share reducing savings rose to 14% from 8%, and Gen X posted the lowest on-track reading of the four generations, at 49%.
10 stories
- Practice management
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.
- Practice management
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.
- Products & portfolios
IRS ruling targets ETF conversions used to realign appreciated portfolios
The revenue ruling says a prearranged conversion that quickly and materially changes a portfolio can be recharacterized, leaving the holding period and the size of the shift open.
- Products & portfolios
IRS, Treasury proposal would auto-create an estimated 63.36 million 530A accounts
The draft replaces March rules and would open a tax-advantaged account for an eligible child before a family makes any funding decision.
- Practice management
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.
- Recruiting & transitions
Most remaining Wells producing managers told to pick clients or management
A source says they must decide by October 1; Wells says the move fits a shift toward larger, higher-producing branch complexes.
- The Advisor's Note
Tax Foundation models 86 tax-code changes, led by AMT simplification
The alternative minimum tax dates to 1969; the Congressional Budget Office projects fewer than 600,000 taxpayers will pay it in 2026.
- Practice management
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.
- Products & portfolios
Cornyn and Van Duyne bill would defer tax on reinvested mutual fund gains
The Generating Retirement Ownership Through Long-Term Holding Act would let investors postpone capital gains tax on qualifying reinvested distributions until they sell shares, narrowing a gap the Tax Foundation says separates funds from ETFs.
- Recruiting & transitions
UBS hires Merrill's John Pham and Jimmy Yip below $10M production minimum
The pair produced $7.5 million against the $10 million bar for a 16-year package paying 550% of revenue, on a book sources put at $575 million to $1.2 billion.
13 stories
- Products & portfolios
Raymond James and AssetMark widen private-market access as Gridline flags an infrastructure gap
Cerulli found 57% of asset managers now prioritize broader access to semiliquid and illiquid alternatives, up 17 points from last year.
- Practice management
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.
- Practice management
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.
- Products & portfolios
SEC staff reminds funds on private-asset fair value as private credit in registered fund portfolios hits $270 billion
The staff statement names interval funds, tender offer funds and BDCs, and pairs valuation judgment with what investors are told.
- Products & portfolios
SEC staff statement puts private-asset valuation on advisors' due-diligence list
The joint notice adds no new rules but names non-accruals, payment-in-kind interest and fair value judgments among the disclosure items clients will ask about.
- Tax & estate planning
California billionaire-tax measure goes to voters in November with legal risk unresolved
A Tax Foundation panel calls the measure a first-in-a-nation state wealth tax and leaves valuation, constitutional challenge and whether California would ever collect unresolved.
- Recruiting & transitions
UBS hires Merrill’s John Pham and Jimmy Yip, a $7.5 million Silicon Valley team
The pair’s $7.5 million production fell short of the $10 million minimum for a 16-year offer paying 550% of revenue, while sources put the book between $575 million and $1.2 billion.
- Practice management
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.
- Products & portfolios
Rieder sees bond opportunity as 10-year Treasury yield tops 5%
Advisors face a duration decision as federal debt exceeds $40 trillion and AI-linked issuers add more than $400 billion of bonds in 2026.
- Tax & estate planning
2025 SEP funding and two IRA corrections share an October 15 deadline
Advisors have until October 15 to fund 2025 SEP IRAs for extended business returns, remove excess 2025 contributions, and recharacterize contributions clients have changed their minds about.
- The Advisor's Note
Modern Wealth logs six advisor moves and a four-advisor liftout in one day
The Sept. 28 records show the week's largest single advisor count; UBS and Raymond James each lost three-advisor teams earlier in the week.
- Practice management
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.
- Practice management
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.
3 stories
- Recruiting & transitions
UBS's digital hire is a book-transfer play
The platform build Naureen Hassan is leading will set two prices for UBS's 6,000 brokers: what a team costs to recruit and what a book is worth at retirement.
- Products & portfolios
Bitwise crypto models land inside Vise's rebalancing engine
Putting the crypto sleeve on the same rebalancing schedule and tax treatment as the rest of the book is the unglamorous version of mainstreaming digital assets — and the one that scales.
- The Advisor's Note
Schwab's cash shelf turns the sweep into a product
Save's Market Savings puts principal-protected yield in front of more than 16,000 RIAs on Schwab's platform, and gives the next custody renewal a number it never had to defend.
2 stories
- Products & portfolios
The $1.3 trillion climate ask lands in manager reviews
Climate Week's panel handed advisors one practical instruction: underwrite climate risk inside the managers clients already own.
- Products & portfolios
Schwab opens its cash shelf to a yield-splitting product
Save's Market Savings puts principal-protected yield in front of more than 16,000 RIAs on Schwab's platform, and turns the sweep into something advisers can shop.