Rockefeller adds J.P. Morgan team in Houston
Two outlets report the same Houston team at $1.4 billion and $700 million in client assets, and give different accounts of how many people moved.
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Older Americans reported $3 billion in fraud losses in 2025
Investment scams cost $1.06 billion, up 42%; losses above $100,000 were 6% of reports but 70% of dollars.
UBS and Ameriprise add advisor retention bonuses for 2026-27
Louis Diamond says paying a group to stay before it leaves differs from deferred compensation, and other firms may follow.
SEC approves fourth projections exception to FINRA Rule 2210
Its conditions track the SEC Marketing Rule, and use is limited to investors able to evaluate projections.
Wealth managers announced 156 RIA deals, closed 50 in 90 days
Steward's Jim Gold says volume may run five times the reported count; Mariner seeks a $150 million term-loan add-on, taking debt to $1.3 billion.
Osaic president says recruiting turned 'very, very fierce'
Shannon Reid also said large-scale M&A is 'not really in our plan' for Osaic, which has about $740 billion in assets.
Insurers rank IBDs above RIAs for annuity growth
Goldman survey finds 33% pick RIAs, down from 45%; Cerulli puts commissionable insurance use at 15% of independent RIAs.
iShares funds take in $9.8 billion as SOXX alone adds $5.3 billion
IWM, IVV and IGV, which drew money over the prior three weeks, all had outflows in the week to Oct. 25, iShares data show.
Sowell Management promotes Scott Dooley to CIO
The $6.8 billion Arkansas RIA's new Office of the CIO will add research, portfolio construction and consulting for advisors.
Recruiting scoreboard: Charles Schwab leads August asset growth among public wealth firms
Month-end client assets, net new assets, advisor counts and recruited assets for Charles Schwab, Raymond James and Stifel, from each firm's own SEC filings.
The Week in Wealth: Consolidation Runs on Debt, Teams and Metered AI
The week's deal, movement and flow data show consolidation and recruiting still running, but leverage, custody minimums and metered vendor costs are shifting the bill to RIAs.
Claude sets $4,800 seat minimum; FINNY's $50 fee adds asset share
Visionary Square pays the fee for 250-plus advisors; FINNY takes a share of assets won at an unstated rate.
Wealth firms bought capacity, not size, in a 19-deal week
A $714 million median disclosed deal, $6.8 billion of moving advisor books and Mariner's $150 million loan add-on show financing and integration setting the pace [T1][T4][S27].
UBS Bought $5.3 Billion of Recruits and Lost $11 Billion
UBS recruited eight teams and $5.3 billion of disclosed books while $11 billion walked out. An advisor holding the offer should price it after forfeiture, against that record.
The $947 Million Median Is Not the Bid a Sub-$1B RIA Gets
Owners of $250 million-to-$1 billion RIAs sell into a market defined by closed sub-$1 billion deals and founders who stayed, not by headline AUM.
Hard assets top private credit by $5.3B in Q3
Alternative fundraising fell 14% to $134.4 billion through September, Stanger reports.
Hard assets out-raised private credit by $5.3B in Q3
Credit fundraising fell 48% and hard assets rose 39% through September, while private credit assets climbed 17% to $4.1 trillion.
A buyer's deal pipeline is not collateral for an RIA sale
Wealth managers announced 156 deals and closed 50 in 90 days. Sellers should price the buyer on closes, committed capital and who stays.
Hard assets outraise credit by $5.3B as fundraising falls 14%
Credit fundraising dropped 48% while hard assets rose 39% through September, Stanger reports, and private credit assets reached $4.1 trillion.
Steward CEO Jim Gold says RIA deal volume may run five times reported
His own firm's 12-month mix implies about 1.7 times the reported count; announced comps run from $330 million to $1 billion.
Client cash moving to T-bills is a custody contract fight
Clients put $6.2 billion into the muni ETF and $5 billion into three-month bills in 30 days. That is a sweep-yield decision, and it gets priced at custody renewal, not on the fund menu.
Busiest RIA buyers average $679 million a deal, below the median
Hightower announced three deals in the 90 days to Oct. 26 and closed none; one moved a $1.1 billion practice already inside the firm.
Credit fundraising falls 48% as hard assets outraise it by $5.3B
Private credit assets still grew 17% to $4.1 trillion, and one-sixth of surveyed funds report non-accruals above 5%.
Credit interval fund redemptions reach 79% of gross sales
Credit tender offer fund net sales fell 15% to $1.8 billion while interval fund repurchases absorbed most of the category's gross sales, Stanger data show.
RIA sale prices turn on retention; the structure carries the multiple
Elevation Point typically takes a 20% minimum stake, while Concurrent bought $5.4 billion Spire as an asset purchase.
Fidelity's $100 million floor meets Anthropic's $4,800 minimum
Custody is priced on assets; the software layer above it is now priced on seats, calls and commitments.
ICG next, a $2.3B New Jersey firm, moves from LPL to Osaic
The Wall Township firm, led by James Costabile, listed recruiting and acquisition support among its reasons after evaluating several major firms.
Mariner seeks $150M term loan add-on, lifting debt to $1.3B
Moody's projects 6.7x debt/EBITDA and says ratings are unaffected.
Raymond James names Scott Curtis COO effective Oct. 26
David Sisemore takes Raymond James Financial Services on an interim basis, and Kirk Bell leads the independent contractor division effective April 2026.
F2 survey: 17% of wealth firms ask for referrals as a step
F2 says growth improved while client-acquisition tactics changed little; the surveyed firms average about $83 billion in assets each.
RIA AI maturity tracks governance structure, not tech spend
Firms with centralized or hybrid governance scored more than 2.5 times higher in a Cerulli study of 68 firms.
ADV Watch: Mercury Advisory, LLC reports a $4.63 billion asset gain; 35 advisers join the SEC list, 13 leave
What changed in the SEC's weekly Form ADV data between October 17, 2026 and October 24, 2026: the largest reported asset moves, new and departed advisers, headcount swings and name changes.
Benchmark, AP Maverick funds carry 85% of $188.3M sold
Ten of the 18 vehicles sold under $1 million each, and four of those name Belltower Fund Group, Ltd. as a related person.
RBC, Kintra, Pinnacle, Modern add 20 advisors
Teams of four to six advisors left UBS, Commonwealth/LPL Financial, Truist and 4thGEN on Oct. 25; Truist named interim co-heads.
Kruszewski: lower-multiple merger won't lift Stifel's 9x multiple
The CEO told BMO's Brennan Hawken a combination must leave Stifel trading higher, and pointed to EPS up 406% since 2016.
Anthropic's Claude needs 20 seats, a mismatch for 11,000 Schwab RIAs
The $4,800, 20-seat minimum surfaced on a Claude webinar days before Schwab's IMPACT conference, where RIAs meet both firms.
Fidelity's $100 million custody minimum leaves 706 of 986 RIA relationships below it
Betterment and Axos are pitching the 706 firms that fall short, and Betterment's wrap-fee waiver for Fidelity RIAs runs through June 30, 2027.
SEC quorum change lets lone commissioner act when all others are disqualified
The rule took effect Oct. 2, the day Hester Peirce left; the SEC also proposed a 20% performance fee for advisors to registered funds and BDCs.
43% of investors unlikely to switch for better AI tools
Resistance to switching over better digital tools rose 8 points, and trust in advisors as a primary source rose to 52%, a KPMG/SIFMA study found.
Heppner sentencing adjourned without new date as new counsel takes over
A Manhattan jury convicted the former GWG Holdings and Beneficient chairman in May on four counts tied to more than $150 million extracted from GWG, which went bankrupt in 2022.
Vanguard auto-enrolls $1M–$10M self-directed clients in Flagship
The letter restores a dedicated consultant, and non-Vanguard funds now count toward the $1 million minimum.
Modern Wealth acquires 4thGEN, a $330M California practice
The Lodi practice's three advisors and two support staff join a buyer that reports more than $16 billion in client assets.
Janney, Osaic, Rockefeller listed as adding teams worth $7B combined
Three reported moves from Raymond James, LPL and Truist come to $7 billion together, inside a week of $64.6 billion in tracked team assets.
RBC hires Shawn Bernhard for Texas South; DPL names two
Mark Forman and Kendal Wetzel join the commission-free annuity platform as it approaches $7 billion in assets under administration.
Lido co-CEO floats cross-border wealth deals for $42.5B RIA
Stern named the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Mexico City as options; Creative Planning, Corient and Wealthspire have already made such deals.
Steward CEO says RIA deal volume runs up to 5x tracked totals
Jim Gold says advisor-to-advisor book sales and internal succession go unreported; Steward's own 12-month mix implies about 1.7 times the reported count.
IRS allows estate buyback before trustee names charities
Private Letter Ruling 202625012 covers plans whose charitable share may go to a private foundation while the company holds a stock buyback option.
Pinnacle hires $700M Truist team in Naples
The Naples team moves onto Pinnacle's Raymond James Financial Institutions Division platform after leaving Truist.
Truist names Dunn and Cram interim wealth co-heads
Sameer moves to consumer banking; Truist's RIA manages $77 billion.
Orion to charge vendors for API access; Salesforce to meter AI calls
A WealthManagement.com column says the RIA nearly always pays, via a surcharge, a dropped connector or roadmap spending.