63% of RIAs use AI; one in ten has fully integrated it into strategy
Panelists at RIA Edge Orange County pointed to ownership, governance and workflow design as the constraints on getting value from the tools.
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All Private Wealth Daily reporting, newest first.
Mercer completes Aspen direct indexing rollout across more than 43,000 accounts
The platform is Mercer's own and runs on technology built with Orion, designed to run at Schwab, Fidelity and Raymond James; no fee levels were disclosed.
Elevation Point takes minority stake in $750M ex-UBS team Truing Capital Advisors
The Las Vegas team, formerly MPI Wealth Management at UBS, will custody with Goldman Sachs as Elevation Point pursues a $50 billion goal.
Wealthspire's Ground Control acquires London-based Atlantic Swiss, a $1 billion wealth manager
Eight advisors and founding partner Craig Bell join a U.K. business that already has offices in London and the Midlands.
Plunkett and Thomas launch Iron Shore Wealth Strategies in Fifth Avenue Financial tie-up
The new firm gets an investment platform, planning capabilities and support infrastructure from Fifth Avenue Financial, a MassMutual firm.
Kestra, Retirement Planning Group and Raymond James Financial Services trail LPL in 30-day advisor events
Four of the six busiest firms in our records over the past 30 days sit outside LPL and UBS; team liftouts outnumbered breakaways 400 to 72.
Beacon Pointe adds $1.35B across three RIAs, passing $70B
The trio includes a roughly $1 billion California and Texas planner and two firms under $250 million; Wealthspire also bought a London wealth manager.
Modern Wealth acquires 4thGEN Wealth Management, a $330M Lodi RIA
The purchase is Modern Wealth's seventh this year and 25th since its 2023 founding, according to the firm's release.
Robertson Stephens combines with Alpha Investment Consulting, passes $10 billion in client assets
The Milwaukee institutional consultant brings a six-person team led by Bob Bukowski and clients including foundations, endowments and nonprofits.
Atreides Lookfar files Form Ds for four series, each reporting $0 sold
The Oct. 16 filings cover Series 4 and 5 onshore and Series 4 SP and 5 SP offshore; Atreides Management LP is listed as a related person, not the issuer.
Phil Scott and Jim Atwood launch $18.6B RIA Latigo Peak as BofA downgrades Ameriprise
The self-funded Palm Beach Gardens firm opens with 48 professionals and dual custody at Charles Schwab and BNY Pershing.
Bank of America downgrades Ameriprise over the cost of retention bonuses
Ameriprise shares closed at $480.41 on Oct. 19, down 4.07%, as analysts questioned whether bonus payments can hold teams that RIA ownership keeps pulling away.
Sifma-KPMG survey: Gen Z trust in AI-only advice falls to 10%
Advisor-supported investors reported 88% satisfaction, compared with 87% for hybrid clients, in a poll of more than 2,100 U.S. investors.
Boston Consulting Group ranks financial services among most AI-exposed sectors
A separate Advisor360° survey of 300 advisors found 74% expect AI to help their business, but 55% name compliance as the main hurdle.
ICG Next leaves LPL for Osaic with $2.3B and acquisition plans
The Wall Township, N.J. firm launched on LPL's platform in 2019 and has nearly tripled in size, according to Osaic.
Rockefeller family-dynamics head says heirs need preparation, not just documents
Mallory Findley says families focus on trusts and tax returns because they are measurable, while relationships and preparation get less attention.
CircleBlack names Robertson Stephens COO Vikram Chugh as CEO
Chugh spent more than eight years as COO at Robertson Stephens, which shares an owner with CircleBlack in Long Arc Capital.
Focus names Nevis enterprise AI platform, starting with account opening
Justin Ferri tells InvestmentNews the first work will center on account opening and onboarding across Focus units.
&Partners adds $323M Oklahoma practice; EP Wealth hires Denver advisor
Stonemere Wealth, founded by Brian Geist, is the 131st practice to join &Partners, which reports $65 billion in assets.
Fidelity's $100M custody minimum leaves 706 of 986 RIAs below it, PWD reports
Betterment's wrap-fee waiver for Fidelity RIAs carries a June 30, 2027 deadline.
Danish regulator clears Jyske Bank's Formuepleje and FP Kapital deals
Jyske expects to complete both acquisitions with effect from 2 November.
HB Wealth and EP Wealth dealmakers say cost of capital, not midterms, moves valuations
Third-quarter RIA transactions fell 17% to 77, and a fourth quarter at that pace would leave 2026 one deal short of last year's record.
EverWind and Anthropic announce $5.6 billion deal Monday
Sosteneo closed its Clean Energy Infrastructure Fund II at $504 million.
Schwab reports record $24 billion managed investing flows as it develops proprietary long-short strategy
Fund launches outnumbered breakaways nearly five to one in the past 30 days, while advisor moves were the busiest category.
Scott and Atwood leave J.P. Morgan Advisors, where they managed $18.6B, to launch Latigo Peak Partners
The Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., RIA launched with 48 professionals alongside the founders and will custody assets at Charles Schwab and BNY Pershing.
Fidelity's $100M custody minimum applies to 986 RIA relationships; 706 fall short
Betterment's wrap-fee waiver for Fidelity RIAs carries the same June 30, 2027 deadline.
Rockefeller adds $992 million Truist team in Naples
The Kellam Group joins Rockefeller Global Family Office's first office on Florida's west coast, opened earlier this year.
Ascensus routes flagged 401(k) participants to the plan’s own advisor
The recordkeeper, which administers more than $1.3 trillion for over 16 million savers, expects 18 to 20 partner firms to be live on the platform by this time next year.
Danish regulator clears Jyske Bank's acquisition of FP Kapital
Jyske Bank expects to complete the purchase of FP Kapital (Formuepleje) with effect from 2 November 2026.
LPL adds $5.4 billion in advisor teams; Indivisible recruits $1.1 billion RBC group
U.S. Bank and PNC Private Bank each lost a team at or above $2 billion to LPL.
Goldman Sachs and Phoenix Financial announce $4 billion client-asset transaction
The deal is nearly ten times the $412 million in combined RIA acquisitions Apella and Waverly disclosed overnight.
Bernstein's Jennifer Goode says childless clients are underserved by estate-planning defaults
InvestmentNews, citing Federal Reserve research, reports childless adults have median net worth significantly above the general population but are far less likely to have a will.
Sowell names Scott Dooley CIO, restructures investment platform for advisors
The North Little Rock RIA, which reports about $6.8 billion in client assets, bundles research, portfolio construction and consulting into one unit.
Rockefeller Global Family Office adds seven-person $1.2 billion Truist team in Naples
The Kellam Group moved as a seven-person unit, with support staffer Charles Outlaw, according to AdvisorHub.
Apella and Waverly announce RIA acquisitions of $261M and $151M
Four real estate deals closed in the same window and total $407.5 million, just under the $412 million from the two wealth-management transactions.
Advisor moves outnumber custodian changes 25-to-1 as Schwab reports record flows
Schwab Advisor Services took in $120.1 billion of the $190.4 billion total, up 47% year over year.
SEI recruits Kristie Edling-Day from LPL; Hightower and Carson add executives
Hightower added Robert Picard from First Republic and Marc Cabezas from Edelman; Carson added Matt Humphrey from United Bank / United Brokerage Services.
Wells Fargo adds $900 million in recruits; Janney lands $3.3 billion Raymond James team
Three moves into Wells Fargo totaled about $900 million, while Janney's Houston opening brought in a group that managed about $3.3 billion at Raymond James.
Apella acquiring Blue Spark; Waverly adding MCS; CohnReznick to add Aldrich
Blue Spark is Apella's 30th acquisition since 2014; MCS is Waverly's 37th since a 2021 minority investment.
LPL leads 30-day advisor activity; Kestra Private Wealth Services is third with 71
The 12 firms in the table account for 779 tracked events, and The Retirement Planning Group ties Raymond James Financial Services at 64.
Merrill adds $1.2B UBS team in Santa Fe; Glassel and Fox to join &Partners
John Vazquez and Manuel Monasterio led the Santa Fe team, which produced about $4.7 million in revenue, according to AdvisorHub.
Janney opens Houston with $3.3B Raymond James team; Ameriprise recruits three RBC teams
The Edward Fitzpatrick Group managed about $3.3 billion at Raymond James; one report puts the four advisors' client assets at nearly $3.5 billion.
Apella acquires $261M Blue Spark; Waverly acquires $151M MCS Family Wealth Advisors
Apella's Blue Spark purchase is its 30th since 2014; Waverly's MCS deal is its 37th since a 2021 minority investment.
S&P: Custodian referrals supplied about half of Mercer's first-half net new assets
S&P flagged referral fees as a margin drag while Mercer has refinanced $1.9 billion and Schwab plans to lift its referral minimum to $5 million.
Ameriprise recruits three RBC teams with nearly $1.2B and Wells adds nearly $900M
Raymond James lost Southwell to Wells Fargo and gained a $245 million UBS pair in Paramus in the same round-up.
Fifth Third Wealth Advisors CIO Chris Osmond overweights real assets as growth and inflation rise
The $7.8 billion RIA says client households average about $9 million, and Osmond sees rising yields as the biggest risk.
Janney opens Houston office with $3.5B Raymond James team
The Edward Fitzpatrick Group managed $3.3 billion at Raymond James; advisor Lance Murphy oversaw more than $200 million there.
S&P: Mercer got roughly half of first-half 2026 net new assets from custodian referrals
S&P flagged referral-fee pressure on margins as Mercer refinances $1.9 billion and Schwab will lift its referral minimum to $5 million.
HighWater Wealth's $2.4 billion U.S. Bank exit leads five team moves worth $8.66 billion
The five moves total $8.66 billion in client assets, and LPL Financial took two of them.
Trust & Will launches Nevada-chartered trust company for sub-$10 million estates
The online estate planning provider says the unit will act as corporate trustee with no minimum account size, targeting households under $10 million that larger trust companies have left unserved.