Advisors archive
Every Advisors story, newest first. 898 stories
14 stories
- Practice management
Read retention before you read the growth ranking
IBD Elite growth is driven by market lift and M&A; the retention line is the due-diligence test advisors should run.
- Practice management
Vanguard's Altruist deal turns custody into a pricing event
The platform that holds client assets now sets the outer limit on what a practice can deliver.
- Products & portfolios
Vanguard 500 at 50: the case for a boring core
Fifty years after a disappointing launch, the anniversary numbers give advisors a ready script for defending a low-cost, broad core-equity position.
- Practice management
Complexity pricing is how flat-fee advisors scale
A Kitces analysis finds flat-fee hourly advice nets about $100 an hour after unbillable work. The fix is pricing for complexity, not abandoning the model.
- Recruiting & transitions
Cetera lands Sierra Ridge's $2.1 billion with an OSJ runway
Thirteen months after praising LPL, Sierra Ridge left for Cetera's enterprise channel — a sign that transition promises expire when growth plans outgrow the platform.
- Practice management
Tax planning's liability line is the new competitive front
Kitces breaks down how 'tax planning' shades into 'tax advice' in the live session — and why the firms that draw the line deliberately will own the tax conversation.
- Tax & estate planning
Slott's Roth screen makes conversion a standing call
Six client categories, anchored by the outside-cash test, give advisors a repeatable Roth conversion agenda.
- Practice management
The $100-an-hour tax on flat-fee advice
A Kitces analysis finds flat-fee hourly pricing nets about $100 an hour, and the first step to repricing by complexity is a month of time tracking.
- Tax & estate planning
The 4% withdrawal drain is eating the inheritance
Two retirement-industry warnings put the 4% withdrawal drain at the center of the Great Wealth Transfer.
- Practice management
State-registered advisers now number 16,897, and oversight follows the rep
NASAA's annual report sizes the sub-$100 million practice and shows why changing a firm's registration doesn't move its people out of state reach.
- Recruiting & transitions
NASAA cuts third-fail retest wait to 60 days
Candidates retesting after three failures will wait 120 days less, starting Jan. 4.
- Recruiting & transitions
A $35 option on returning to advice
NASAA's exam-extension program keeps lapsed Series 65s alive — pending state adoption.
- Tax & estate planning
NASAA puts trusted contacts at the center of senior fraud prevention
The Serve Our Seniors campaign gives advisers a no-cost step to protect older clients—if they treat the trusted contact as more than paperwork.
- Practice management
Custody is an access problem, NASAA reminds state RIAs
New state-regulator guidance urges state-registered RIAs to map every point of access to client money before the custody rule does it for them.
4 stories
- Practice management
Tax leakage is the quiet killer of mass-affluent wealth
A study of 371 wealth managers shows where mass-affluent money leaks — and what a systematic fix looks like.
- Practice management
Boomers spend the inheritance, advisors feel the drain
With 4% of AUM leaving annually and boomers spending the kids' inheritance, the plan becomes the product and the drain becomes the referral fee.
- Products & portfolios
BlackRock's EM downgrade warns advisors to look past the geographic label
Before treating an EM fund as a diversifier, check how much of it sits in the same AI supply chain.
- Practice management
RIA AI dies on three versions of the truth
A household AUM query returns three answers depending on the system, and no model can fix a stack that can't agree with itself.
6 stories
- Practice management
A Miami RIA funds partner buy-ins with appreciation rights
Element Pointe's vesting structure lets key team members pay for partnership with the value they help create.
- Practice management
Financial Advice 3.0 turns planning into a diagnostic business
Kitces maps the next decade from reactive advice to proactive diagnosis, and the practices that keep selling documents will watch the market move past them.
- Tax & estate planning
Respect the client's mental hierarchy to win retirement plans
Mental accounting explains the annuity paradox, drives over-saving, and argues for designing plans inside the client's buckets.
- Products & portfolios
Probability-based guardrails would require 3% where Guyton-Klinger implies 28%
Kitces's analysis finds a 3% reduction can do the job where the classic framework imposes 28%.
- Practice management
The plan is the product. Advisor calendars haven't caught up
Kitces Research will revisit how advisors actually build plans. The 2018 benchmark — 26% in preparation, 19% with clients — is the number to watch.
- The Advisor's Note
The cap table now decides who wins $1B teams
Ownership equity, not the wirehouse checkbook, is deciding which firms land the next $1 billion team.
7 stories
- Practice management
Feathery's AI assistant makes bespoke proposals an operations problem
The real test is whether a firm can codify its pitch without boiling it down to a template.
- Tax & estate planning
The pet-trust gap is a doorway back into estate plans
Most planned estates ignore the dog; advisors who ask first win the trust conversation.
- Tax & estate planning
OBBBA rewrites the Roth conversion calendar
In the OBBBA's wake, advisors treat Roth conversions as a year-by-year deduction-timing decision.
- Recruiting & transitions
Altruist advisors should audit pricing and product shelf before the Vanguard deal closes
A Vanguard-owned Altruist will test whether the platform's independence was real. Advisors should negotiate protections now.
- Practice management
Digital tools stop where the stakes rise
New MDRT research on trust hands advisers a playbook: automate the routine, keep a person on the big moment.
- Tax & estate planning
Let the sale date pick the OZ version
Financial Planning's year-end guide shows why the closing date, more than the tax terms, should drive the opportunity zone conversation.
- Practice management
Vanguard's Altruist deal is a contract window for advisors
The real question for advisors on either platform is whether Altruist keeps its speed inside the $4.6 billion parent — and what the contract says about it.
9 stories
- Recruiting & transitions
Vanguard's Altruist bet reprices every RIA custody renewal
The $4.6 billion deal doesn't move assets today, but it hands advisors leverage at the next renewal.
- Practice management
The match is the retention lever owners underprice
A bigger retirement match ranks first among reasons employees stay, which advisors can turn into a benchmarking wedge at the next plan review with a business-owner client.
- Products & portfolios
Schwab's SIPC sweep switch demands a client cash policy
The FDIC-to-SIPC conversion is a coverage change first and a yield event second; advisors who do not move idle cash deliberately will explain it twice.
- Tax & estate planning
Trust decides who stays when 13% of widows leave
The old 70% widow-turnover rule has given way to a 13% departure rate, and the advisor who asks personal questions in the calm years is the one who keeps the account.
- Practice management
The public-sector advice gap is a confidence play
New MissionSquare research shows how rarely public-sector workers seek professional advice—and what it takes to close the gap.
- Practice management
EA designation is a sticky client-retention play
The IRS credential gives advisors permission to own the tax conversation, but the entity structure decides whether that becomes a moat or a liability.
- Recruiting & transitions
Vanguard's $4B Altruist bet is really about Hazel
For advisors shopping custody, the price tag says the AI engine, not the clearing platform, is the asset Vanguard is buying.
- Tax & estate planning
Roth conversions don't require earned income; RMDs can't be combined
IRA owners can convert without taxable compensation, but IRA and 401(k) RMDs still cannot be combined.
- The Advisor's Note
The 11.6x median masks a two-tier market
Fewer deals and record asset volumes mean only prepared firms collect the premium.