Practice management: archive
Every Practice management story in Advisors, newest first. 327 stories
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Advisers rank growing wealth eighth among women's priorities; women rank it first
In a new BlackRock survey, advisers most often traced women's wealth to inheritance or marriage, while 79% of the women credited their own salary or career earnings.
87% of firms use or pilot AI; 6% run agentic tools inside workflows
F2 Strategy's Q2 2026 Trend Report surveyed 40 leading RIAs, wealth management firms and broker-dealers representing $8.6 trillion in assets and found a very weak correlation between AI technology spending and measurable business value.
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SEC sets Nov. 19 virtual compliance seminar for advisers and funds
Enforcement's asset management unit is among the sponsors, and panel questions can be submitted in advance through the agenda.
SEC exam division replaces its brochure with a stage-by-stage handbook
The guide runs from the division's risk assessment to the disposition letter, and the SEC says the aim is a more consistent and predictable exam.
RQD gets a boost as Fidelity sets $100 million custodian minimum
The New York clearing firm counts roughly 50 U.S. advisory clients, and its chief revenue officer describes its RIA work as still in its early infancy.
Altruist prices Hazel planning agent at $3,600 per advisor annually
The custodian is selling the planning tool to advisors regardless of where they custody, and RIABiz reports buyers may need to supply PDFs if rival planning vendors refuse API access.
Pontera floats itself as AI's trust layer for 401(k) access
The 401(k) software firm says agent-to-agent finance needs a validating intermediary, while Schwab says it is preparing Charley agents for its millions of clients.
Aquiline buys control of Flourish from MassMutual as Phase II lending rollout nears
MassMutual retains a stake described as significant in the cash platform used by 1,300 RIAs; no purchase price is disclosed.
Envestnet's Vestmark deal promises advisors no forced platform migrations
The purchase, estimated by analysts at $500 million to $1 billion, arrives six days after Envestnet pledged $1 billion to rebuild the platform advisors already use.
Fidelity backs Savvy Wealth's RIA custody platform, expected in mid-2027
Savvy says multi-billion-AUM RIA prospects pulled the launch forward; Fidelity will collect client revenue and share a portion back.
Pontera launches non-discretionary 401(k) service as password sharing stays blocked
Advisors can advise, bill and report on held-away plan accounts while clients log in and place trades themselves.
Wealthspire launches sports and entertainment practice with $2.9 billion in assets
The practice sits inside Wealthspire Family Office and is led by Frank Marzano, who has advised athletes and entertainers for more than 25 years.
WealthManagement.com report catalogs obstacles to advising 401(k) participants
The report cites record-keeper data feeds most broker-dealers and RIAs do not get frequently, 1990s-era record-keeper technology, and advisors who would rather not meet with participants.
Altruist adds donor-advised funds to custody at 50 basis points
The accounts carry no minimums and can be invested in any model on the platform, but the fee comparison is Altruist's own.
FiComm survey finds 45% of investors chose an advisor without a referral
The New Growth Equation report puts the share at 50% among investors with $5 million or more.
Dynasty tells RIA founders to set share classes and buyback rights on day one
The firm says it began with several share classes 15 years ago and has since simplified them as the business changed.
Schwab Advisor Services becomes first RIA custodian to use Anthropic's Claude
Schwab says it is the only RIA custodian in Anthropic's early release, though Vanguard is on the charter list and says it will not use Claude for custody.
Fidelity ends custody for sub-$100 million RIAs, with June 2027 exit
Michael Kitces called the hard no bizarre, noting earlier minimum increases let small firms pay a fee to stay.
SEC proposes rescinding pay-to-play rule for advisers with government clients
The proposal would drop the two-year ban on compensated advisory work after political contributions, along with the recordkeeping provisions tied to it.
Mariner CEO Marty Bicknell budgets $175M for 700 AI bots over five years
RIABiz reports Bicknell co-owns Humanity Labs, whose agentic AI will handle back-office work in a plan aimed at absorbing acquired RIAs faster.
SEC and five other regulators warn on impersonation and relationship investment scams
The joint bulletin, issued for World Investor Week’s tenth edition, names two scam categories and directs investors to registration checks and Investor.gov.
Cerulli and Morningstar: 63% of surveyed advisers see DC plans as a prospecting priority
A separate Crisil Coalition Greenwich study, also published this morning, finds affluent investors combining adviser-led and self-directed accounts, a mix that may complicate the rollover handoff.
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Northwestern Mutual survey: 61% expect long-term care, 54% have not planned for it
Respondents who worked with an adviser were about twice as likely to report having a long-term care plan, and 73% preferred receiving care at home.
Boise advisor Alex Lundgren turned live AM radio into a Micron client niche
Roughly half of her 187 households work at Micron or large area hospitals, a concentration built on plan-document fluency and callers who became clients.
Compound Planning runs $5 billion on software its own engineers write
Co-founder Alex Farman-Farmaian explains what the ten-person team built, and where the RIA still buys.
Anthropic announces Claude for Financial Advisors; provider list remains unnamed
Kitces's #AdvisorTech column reports the plugin connects to existing advisor tools to run tasks like pre-meeting summaries, without naming which providers are on the list.
Ascensus launches a participant-referral workflow for plan advisers
The recordkeeper says the tool links 401(k) savers with the adviser serving their employer plan, across a book of more than 16 million participants and $1.3 trillion in administered assets.
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SEC proposes ending pay-to-play rule that prompted many advisers to ban all employee contributions
Rule 206(4)-5 barred compensated advisory services to government clients for two years after certain political contributions; firm-wide employee bans often went further.
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SIFMA panel says advisers can build an audience without becoming finfluencers
Advisers from Merrill Lynch, RBC, Oppenheimer and Edward Jones said expertise alone no longer draws clients, but viral content is the wrong goal.
House Democrats introduce three retirement bills widening fiduciary advice and plan standing to sue
The package would count commissions from any source as compensation that triggers fiduciary status on a rollover recommendation.
SEC proposes custody relief for RIAs with discretionary trading authority
The 760-page proposal would drop written-agreement and outside-exam requirements for RIAs that meet three conditions.
OpenAI agents probed SEC sites and posted public data; compliance consultants see a regulator gap
An SEC spokesperson said no nonpublic data was released, and two compliance consultants point to the agency's backend as the exposure.
SEC proposes custody amendments, acknowledging adviser self-custody for crypto
The statement accompanying the proposal argues that rules built for paper certificates cannot govern assets recorded on a distributed ledger.
Trilogy Financial launches an affiliated tax and consulting business
The Irvine RIA, with more than $5 billion in advisory and brokerage assets across 10 regional offices, says the new affiliate will prepare returns and help advisors connect clients with tax professionals.
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Ascensus launches a participant-referral workflow for plan advisers
The platform links 401(k) savers with the adviser serving their plan across a book of more than 16 million participants and $1.3 trillion in administered assets.
FPA and Snappy Kraken rebuild PlannerSearch around a 12-question client quiz
The revamped FPA directory sorts prospects into four client mindsets based on financial well-being and readiness to engage.
Feathery co-founder pitches firm-wide AI workflow redesign to small RIAs
Zack Khan says the choice is between single-user assistants and rebuilding workflows across a firm; the sponsored episode offers no client results.
SEC proposes 20% performance fees for RIAs and a wider accredited-investor test
The package also adds CPA and CFA licenses to the accredited-investor pathways and loosens interval-fund redemptions, with 60 days of public comment on each.
Kitces & Carl's 200th episode: how advisors explain a fee when the value is intangible
The hosts trace advice's move from product sales to investment management to goal-focused life planning, and why the newest layer resists a quick fee explanation.
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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.