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.
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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.
Ox Road Capital reports $1.1 billion and 93% retention 225 days after UBS exit
The firm says it left without client data; our records show 76 breakaways among 1,238 advisor moves in the past 30 days.
Janney opens Houston office with four advisors from Raymond James
The four advisors collectively manage nearly $3.5 billion in client assets, and the office follows Janney's 2025 entry into Texas with a Dallas office.
Evergreen.ai study: advised AI users act unchecked at nearly triple unadvised rate
InvestmentNews reports 41.9% of advised AI users acted on an answer without checking it, versus 14.4% of unadvised AI users.
XYPN opens president search as Vince Hockett plans spring 2027 retirement
The network says advisor membership grew from about 1,172 in March 2020 to 2,401 today, with Sapphire carrying more than $1 billion in assets.
Cantor Income Trust fills 27% of September repurchase requests; Cliffwater caps Q3 at 5%
Cliffwater's 5% third-quarter cap against requests that reached 16% implies a fill rate near one-third, matching its Sept. 3 letter to shareholders.
Schwab's RIA long-short margin loans average $51.4 billion; MassMutual adds securities-backed credit
Schwab's RIA custody unit drew $120.1 billion of the record $190.4 billion in net new assets.
Schwab reports record $190.4 billion net new assets and touts all-size RIA custody
Schwab Advisor Services took in $120.1 billion in the quarter, up 47%, while Schwab Wealth Advisory net flows rose 55%.
Schwab Advisor Services adds $120.1 billion in Q3 net new assets
Advisor assets reached $5.85 trillion, and average margin loans tied to RIA long-short strategies were $51.4 billion in the quarter, up from $2.8 billion a year earlier.
Mercer Advisors refinances $1.9B into first syndicated loan
The Denver RIA replaces private debt with a seven-year term loan B and a $340 million revolver; it says the savings will fund acquisitions.
Former UBS leaders Glassel and Fox to join &Partners; Ballast Rock hires Deann Cross
Glassel and Fox will co-lead the St. Louis hybrid broker/dealer's ultra-high-net-worth and private wealth businesses; Cross spent almost 20 years at Integrity.
CohnReznick to add Aldrich's $8B wealth practice in mid-December deal
The transaction brings Aldrich CPAs + Advisors, about 48 partners and more than 500 employees, into the New York tax and consulting firm.
Advisor moves outnumber breakaways about 17 to 1 in our 30-day count
LPL Financial recorded 123 tracked events, followed by UBS at 92 and Kestra Private Wealth Services at 69.
Schwab names wealth advice a growth area as advisory net flows rise 55%
Managed investing net flows hit a record $24 billion in the quarter, and the firm says a proprietary long-short investment strategy is in the works.
MassMutual launches securities-backed credit line with Supernova as lender
MML Investors Services refers the loans and takes no underwriting or credit decisions; the line follows a Flourish cash-account announcement by seven days.
Q3 RIA deal counts fall at DeVoe, Piper Sandler and Fintrx
DeVoe counted 77 deals, down 17%, and says reaching its annual record now needs 79 in the fourth quarter.
Ox Road Capital crossed $1B in 225 days after leaving UBS with no client data
The four-partner team now reports roughly $1.1B in assets and a 93% retention rate, according to a WealthManagement.com podcast published Oct. 15.
Former VestGen CEO Josh Gerry launches Valla Wealth under Invictus
Valla is an employee-owned Chicago firm operating as a DBA of the Dynasty-backed RIA launched in 2021.
Deann Cross joins Ballast Rock Private Wealth as senior wealth advisor
The Charleston RIA reported $406 million in regulatory assets across 642 accounts and nine employees as of Oct. 10, per PWD's records.
Mercer Advisors closes $1.9B refinancing, its first syndicated loan
The Goldman-led package includes a $340 million revolver and is projected to cut interest by $35 million to $40 million next year.
Evertern Wealth sends partners to multi-state families
Founder Jason Stephens says clients split their year among Florida, the Northeast or Midwest, and abroad, so the firm builds meetings around each trip.
AtlasClear signs definitive agreement for Ark Financial Services, completes 24.9% purchase
The remaining 75.1% of Ark Financial Services is contingent on FINRA approval and other closing conditions.
Altrata puts US ultra-wealthy giving at $107bn for 2025
Separate research finds 75 percent of wealthy clients would favor an advisor skilled in philanthropy, while fewer than half of advisors deliver.
Captrust adds $3B Truist team; Chris Hoge says equity part of deal
Just over 68% of Captrust's more than 2,000 employees hold a stake.
SEI names Kristie Edling-Day chief information officer, hiring from LPL
Edling-Day, most recently CIO for advisor technology at LPL Financial, will oversee SEI's technology and product organization and report to CEO Ryan Hicke.
Merrill adds $1.2B UBS team in Santa Fe
The hire extends a week in which Merrill said advisors overseeing $1.8 billion joined from Morgan Stanley, Truist and Wells Fargo.
MCO extends personal-trading surveillance to prediction markets
About half of MCO's more than 1,500 financial services clients are RIAs, its director of product management says.
Choreo hires ex-LPL ClientWorks chief Gabriel Rodriguez as CTO
Rodriguez will run advisor technology, platform integration and AI at the $19.1 billion RIA.
LPL adds $1B Seattle team from Northwestern Mutual; Raymond James recruits $350M Georgia practice
Prince Financial Services joins LPL's broker-dealer, RIA and custodial platforms; GFS Advisory leaves Commonwealth for Raymond James Financial Services.
Truxton Wealth hires Ralph Linn as senior vice president, portfolio manager
Linn spent two decades at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and was most recently a senior vice president at ICR.
VestGen Wealth Partners secures credit facility from Willow Tree for Midwest RIA deals
The facility size was not disclosed; Waverly Advisors and Apella Wealth added RIAs in the same week, totaling $412 million in disclosed figures.
Rosenwald Private Wealth's $1.1B Baltimore team joins Indivisible Partners from RBC
Led by Beth Rosenwald, Matthew Kunkel and Leksi Kovalerchik, the team's $1.1 billion book is about 53% of Indivisible's reported regulatory AUM.
Fidelity extends $100M custody minimum to 986 RIA relationships
ADV data show 706 affected firms hold less than $100 million across all custodians; Betterment and Axos are pitching them.
CohnReznick to add Aldrich's $8B wealth practice, closing mid-December
The deal also brings Aldrich CPAs + Advisors, about 48 partners and more than 500 employees into the New York tax and consulting firm.
T. Rowe Price adds two wealth executives, with 50-plus client-facing roles in progress
Kevin Johnson and Ryan Bauer join the $1.86 trillion asset manager; the larger field sales and specialist hiring push is not yet complete.
UBS logs 91 events in past 30 days; LPL second with 83
Advisor moves hit 1,376 for the period; UBS's 91 events were about 12% of the 742 logged across the 12 busiest firms.
Choreo hires Gabriel Rodriguez, ex-LPL technology executive, as CTO
Rodriguez oversaw LPL's ClientWorks advisor workstation and will run advisor technology, platform integration and AI at Choreo, the $19.1 billion RIA.
LPL adds Seattle's Prince Financial, a $1B team from Northwestern Mutual
The move brings five named partners onto LPL's platforms; financial terms were not disclosed.
UBS loses 34 advisors in early October; two executives will join &Partners
Frost Investment Services took a 27-advisor team; Wells Fargo FiNet added a seven-advisor group with $1.3 billion in assets.
State Street and Apex Clearing launch RIA custody; Connecticut Wealth hires Subatomic for AI
The new custody unit targets RIAs with at least $1 billion in assets; the $5.2 billion Connecticut RIA plans a first phase before end-2026.
Hightower and Merrill teams launch independent practices with $1B-plus in assets
Perennial Wealth Partners, an eight-person team, launches under Integrated Partners, while Nick Economos brings about $580 million to LPL's supported independence model.
VestGen takes Willow Tree credit to fund Midwest RIA acquisitions
The credit facility's size was not disclosed; VestGen has grown to 19 advisory firms and $8.5 billion in client assets since launching with 10 practices in late 2024.
VestGen Wealth Partners receives Willow Tree credit to fund RIA acquisitions
The Chicago-based wealth platform has grown to 19 firms and $8.5 billion in assets from 10 practices and $5.3 billion at its December 2024 launch.