Practice management: archive
Every Practice management story in Advisors, newest first. 326 stories
1 story
49 Financial designed tax-led fractional family office
The Austin hybrid RIA puts CPA-led planning and estate and insurance coordination behind the client's advisor, founder Travis Penfield says.
11 stories
Vanguard auto-enrolls $1 million–$10 million clients in Flagship
The letters went out last week; outside funds held at Vanguard now count toward the $1 million minimum.
SEC approves FINRA rule letting broker-dealers market projected returns
The approval creates a conditional exception to Rule 2210's ban on performance projections, after NASAA said it could not support the change without stronger investor-protection guardrails.
Merrill raises 2027 growth-award bar to $7.5 million and a net four new households
The firm leaves its core grid unchanged and replaces the $150 million Elite Award with three categories that each pay a 50% premium to the growth award.
EP Wealth's Brian Parker says organic growth drives firm value, not deal metrics
On an RIA Edge panel, Snowden Lane's Alison Burkett described growth as every employee's job and tied it to better client service rather than a sales push.
Multi-owner firms with $100M–$1B in assets had 48% higher EBITDA multiple, Wealth Solutions Report column says
The column's author, writing from FP Transitions, urges owners to ask whether growth reached margins and whether the firm could run without them.
A $2.8B RIA's 18-month AI rollout delivered speed and a 'probably' on value
An Oct. 22 letter to Wealth Solutions Report's Dear Ryan column says the unnamed firm evaluated 11 vendors, selected three, and saw faster work but no reimagined client-service model.
WealthManagement.com column says Vanguard-Altruist deal raises advisor fee question
The column argues advisors must demonstrate how they interpret, contextualize and apply what clients already bring to the meeting.
Devon Klumb tells advisors to expect AI questions before meetings
A 2026 Betterment Advisor Solutions survey of 1,001 U.S. advised investors found 75% use AI for financial tasks and 3% would consider replacing their advisor with an AI-powered alternative.
Fee-only RIAs' $5B-plus asset share falls to 34%, Cerulli finds
Cerulli reports fee-only firm growth at a 7.8% compound rate over five years, versus 12.4% for broker/dealer hybrids and 37.3% for RIAs with insurance-licensed advisors.
Visionary Square will cover FINNY AI subscription costs for 250-plus advisors
The hybrid RIA, which has $24 billion in assets under supervision, will cover seat costs for the AI prospecting tool at its 140 partner firms.
Focus hires AI startup Nevis to rebuild data flows across its 90 RIAs
CEO Adam Biernbaum described the contract as buying a process rather than a product; Focus passed over IBM, McKinsey, Accenture and Booz Allen, RIABiz reported.
8 stories
Focus Financial adds Nevis as enterprise AI platform nine months after Jump rollout
Nevis will handle account opening first; Jump, rolled out to 800 advisors, has opened a beta for the same function at Schwab and Fidelity.
FTC flags fake Evite invitations as a route into client accounts
The scheme asks recipients to enter their email login to see event details, and advisors warn a compromised inbox can reset the passwords to financial accounts.
PHP releases fixes for critical PHP2Shell flaws after details leak online
Patched versions are 8.5.12, 8.4.27, 8.3.36 and 8.2.35; exploit attempts were recorded the same day.
SEC lets lone commissioner act when all other sitting members are disqualified
The rule took effect Oct. 2, the day Commissioner Hester Peirce left, as the agency weighs letting RIAs charge performance fees of up to 20%.
Kevin Harnisch: SEC off-channel focus moving from sweeps to exams; Finra still scrutinizes
The Norton Rose Fulbright partner and former SEC enforcement branch chief says firms that discover substantive off-channel messages must investigate and remediate.
Ezra Group's AI connector directory grows from 69 to 244 in ten weeks
The directory's 244 listings include 123 agents and 121 MCP servers, following a September wave of official connectors from wealthtech platforms.
Fee-only RIA asset share falls to 34% among $5bn-plus firms, Cerulli finds
Insurance-licensed firms doubled their share to 14%; hybrids stayed at 51% over five years.
Nerd's Eye View lays out a two-pronged client review approach for RIAs
Amplify Reviews' 2026 report, cited in the article, finds 79% of top RIAs are not actively using testimonials or online reviews in marketing.
6 stories
Michael Kitces: AI's main effect will be deeper client engagements
At the eMoney Advisor 2026 Summit, he argued time saved on plan preparation flows into additional client work and can support higher fees.
Jump links FMG content to follow-ups; Zocks partners with LPL
Jump flags firm-approved FMG pieces for the advisor to send or drop; Zocks syncs conversation data to LPL's WealthVision Premium planning tool.
Gen Z trust in AI-only advice falls to 10%, SIFMA-KPMG survey finds
The survey of more than 2,100 U.S. investors finds 42% rely on advisors as their primary source of investment advice, up from 39%.
Mercer Global Advisors completes Aspen Investing rollout across 43,000 client accounts
Mercer reports $110 billion in assets and built the platform with Orion; a 125-person investment team oversees it.
InvestmentNews column: independent firms can develop associate advisors through strategic projects
An InvestmentNews opinion piece says a CRM conversion or vendor review can teach business judgment.
Focus Financial Partners names Nevis its enterprise AI platform, starting with account opening
The mandate comes nine months after Focus began rolling out Jump's AI assistant to 800 advisors, and Jump is testing an account-opening feature of its own.
4 stories
ShinyHunters claimed client data theft at Mercer and Beacon Pointe
Mercer says unauthorized access to systems holding client data is contained and law enforcement was notified; Beacon Pointe's state filing covered three Massachusetts residents.
Ascensus expects 18 to 20 advisory firms on 401(k) referral platform within a year
The recordkeeper's tool flags 401(k) participants at job changes, rollovers and retirement, then routes them to the adviser already serving the employer's plan.
Jarvis and Shilanski lay out a 30% profitability floor and client color coding
The framework divides money reaching the owner's tax return by everything the client pays, including fund expenses, and targets 30% or better.
F&G finds 51% of pre-retirees plan to semi-retire rather than stop working
A same-day WTW survey found 36% of U.S. employees feel financially secure, down from 46% in 2019.
5 stories
Nationwide survey: 56% of investors anxious about midterms' effect on savings
Forty percent of investors changed their retirement savings or portfolio ahead of the midterms, and 73% want an adviser to explain the election’s financial impact.
Mercer got roughly half of H1 2026 net new assets from custodian referrals
S&P says the referral fees paid to custodian partners could limit Mercer's margin expansion, according to its new credit-rating report.
Docupace launches Next 1.0; Focus Financial names Nevis its AI platform
Docupace says existing workflows and document history carry forward, while Focus made an undisclosed but “significant investment” in Nevis.
DeepVest launches PlanLab, taking its AI planning tool out of beta
The tool pairs an AI assistant with deterministic calculators for Social Security claiming, Roth conversions, RMDs and gifting, and can import an advisor's existing plan.
FPA and Allianz: 74% of surveyed planners will spend more time per client relationship
The June survey of 387 planners also found 67% expect to evolve their business model; those with under five years of experience were more likely than veterans to say so.
5 stories
Advisor Growth Strategies survey finds 28% of RIA firms plan to add staff because of AI
Eight percent plan for less hiring, and most firms said AI has not changed hiring plans or they are unsure.
IWI survey finds certification awareness higher among clients who refer
The Investments & Wealth Institute's 2026 client research polled 1,000 U.S. investors with at least $500,000 in household investable assets who work with an advisor.
Schwab Wealth Advisory net flows grew 55% in direct advice push
Schwab says the advice division holds about 2% of a $37 trillion market and is working on a proprietary long-short strategy.
WealthManagement.com: Judge conferences by audience fit, not crowd size
The article says the spend is justified by a defined objective, from qualified sales conversations to product launches.
MassMutual launches securities-backed credit line through Supernova Lending
Loans are made and serviced by Supernova Lending; MML Investors Services takes applications and makes no credit decisions.