Advisors archive
Every Advisors story, newest first. 898 stories
5 stories
- Products & portfolios
Bitcoin's $1 million ETF swap beckons advisors
The in-kind exchange mechanism lets clients move concentrated crypto into a managed ETF wrapper without an immediate sale, shifting the advisor's job to custody and fee due diligence.
- The Advisor's Note
Vanguard's Altruist deal is a negotiation window, not a transfer call
Advisors should lock pricing, product independence, and an advice-funnel carve-out before the standalone promise expires.
- Tax & estate planning
Culture joins the payout grid in recruiting wars
A $1 billion breakaway team weighing three offers shows why the share of women advisors now belongs on the term sheet, next to payout.
- Practice management
Retirement plans fail when the client's identity retires
Advisors who treat the 12 months around retirement as a planning deliverable keep both the relationship and the assets.
- Tax & estate planning
Put the whole family on the mass-affluent balance sheet
Advisors who turn the sandwich squeeze into a planning engagement will own the relationship and the next generation.
15 stories
- Products & portfolios
July CTA drawdown puts manager selection to the test
The trend index gave back half its 2026 gain in July; the funds with the most concentrated factor bets took the steepest losses.
- Practice management
Vanguard-Altruist deal hands RIAs a custody negotiating lever
Advisors should treat the planned purchase as a reason to reprice their custody relationship, not a call to transfer assets today.
- Recruiting & transitions
IBD Elite's women-advisor ranking gives breakaway teams a culture benchmark
The share of women advisors at independent brokerages is a metric worth demanding in any affiliation conversation, alongside payout grids and transition packages.
- Succession & selling a firm
Scale commands record prices as RIA deal count falls
Fidelity's first-half report shows a two-tier sale market—fewer transactions, record asset volumes, and a narrowing queue for smaller practices.
- Tax & estate planning
Trump Accounts add a complication advisors can't ignore
The Tax Foundation says the birth-year savings vehicles deepen an already tangled system — and the planning math isn't ready yet.
- Practice management
Shook's 2027 reboot won't restore the badge's power
The pause gives advisors a rare opening to rebuild their brands around verifiable client outcomes instead of a logo.
- Practice management
Vanguard ownership turns Altruist renewal into the real test
The deal keeps Altruist standalone for now; advisors should weigh the next contract against what independence was worth.
- Tax & estate planning
Parents want schools to teach money and trust institutions that help
An Everfi survey of 750 parents finds 79% trust institutions that educate, a ready-made next-gen client channel for advisors.
- Succession & selling a firm
Fidelity's M&A report is a seller's checklist
Buyers are doing fewer, bigger deals and screening for culture, client experience and expanded services — which makes Fidelity's mid-year M&A report a seller's checklist.
- Recruiting & transitions
Vanguard-Altruist deal turns custody independence into an open question
Advisors should watch pricing, service, and product terms for signs that Altruist's new parent is favoring its own investors.
- Products & portfolios
IRS proposes 10-basis-point cap for Trump accounts
Proposed regulations confine the growth period to low-cost U.S. index funds and ETFs, with no leverage and Treasury's SPYM pick the starter vehicle.
- The Advisor's Note
Clients Need a Definition of Investing, Not a Lecture
A finance professor's essay hands advisors the frame they need for the speculation conversation.
- Practice management
Altruist's new owner brings an advice agenda
The platform says it stays standalone; Vanguard's $12 trillion advice push gives advisers three questions to ask before renewal.
- Tax & estate planning
Medicaid planning's sharpest trade-off comes due at the bedside
Asset-preservation strategies that fund inheritances can quietly strip the resources available for a client's own care; the advisor's job is to put that cost in writing before a health crisis.
- Practice management
Pontera's non-discretionary tool turns held-away 401(k)s into billable work
The September launch adds the compliance and communication layer that lets RIAs and broker-dealers turn workplace retirement accounts into billed relationships.
13 stories
- Succession & selling a firm
The 11.6x RIA multiple is a retention premium
Advisor Growth Strategies' record 11.6x median rewards the owners who gave next-gen equity away before they hired a banker.
- Tax & estate planning
Cogent Bank launches trust unit as Florida wealth surges
Orlando's $2.45 billion-asset bank hires Amerant's former fiduciary chief and bets a trust unit pays for itself by keeping clients.
- Practice management
Edward Jones's $5,000 robo is a bet on the handoff
The hybrid robo undercuts Fidelity and Vanguard on price, but the lasting test is whether small accounts graduate into planning relationships.
- Products & portfolios
State sales tax turns gold into a state-by-state trade
Advisors recommending bullion should check the client's delivery address before the trade, not after.
- Tax & estate planning
A tax-free Social Security play with a 2028 problem
Mahaney's IRA-withdrawal strategy pairs the senior deduction with the modified adjusted gross income test to reach roughly $92,000 in tax-free income—a number tied to a deduction that expires after 2028.
- Succession & selling a firm
Calculator wave prices every advisor's exit
Free valuation tools from recruiters and aggregators are resetting the negotiation floor for advisors planning a move.
- Recruiting & transitions
Cresset pulls $4B UBS team, resets breakaway floor
A 16-person Boca Raton team chose a PE-backed RIA over a wirehouse, and the private-wealth recruiting math has shifted.
- Tax & estate planning
HSA participation rises, retirement investing lags
PSCA's 2026 survey finds 83% of employees contributing to an HSA but only 22% investing it—an opening for advisors to reposition the account in retirement-income plans.
- Succession & selling a firm
Vistria's Curi deal keeps employees on the cap table
The rollover tells advisor-sellers to price retention risk, not just the headline multiple.
- Tax & estate planning
NFP survey finds a succession gap advisors can fill
Among 273 executive-benefits decision-makers, 49% lack a plan for leadership transitions while 62% call succession a key focus—a spread that turns NQDC into an advisor's opening with owner-clients.
- Products & portfolios
Treasury risk premium turns bond ballast into a scenario
A $40 trillion debt overhang shows up in long yields, and retirement income is the collateral.
- Tax & estate planning
Gen Z saves for retirement, with a sportsbook in the plan
Three new surveys show a generation optimistic about retirement while routing investment money through speculative channels — a planning challenge for advisors that doubles as an opening.
- Practice management
Your brand already exists. Go where the yeses are.
Sheri Fitts's brand-building play is to mine the yeses, size the segment, and test the match — a marketing discipline most practices skip.
7 stories
- Practice management
AI compliance hinges on a human-in-the-loop policy
A 411-firm survey finds 48% can point to a human-review policy for AI output, leaving the rest to answer an exam letter built on Regulation S-P.
- Succession & selling a firm
The 71% succession gap in executive benefits
NFP finds 81% of employers cannot afford to lose top talent, but 71% do not design benefits around succession.
- Products & portfolios
Alfa Prime turns the investment committee into software
The multi-model AI 'investment committee' debuts with a small cohort of institutional partners, leaving advisors to wait for the validation that earns client-portfolio trust.
- Tax & estate planning
Wealth taxes turn residency into a deadline
State wealth-tax votes are coming due, and the planning window closes before the ballot does.
- Practice management
For RIAs, the salary-basis test is a payroll audit
DOL Fact Sheet #17G on white-collar exemptions is a classification checklist for client associates and paraplanners—one best used before a wage claim forces the question.
- Succession & selling a firm
The sunset deal’s last excuse is being automated away
As custodians smooth account transfers, the higher price of an independent sale loses its biggest obstacle—and the easy exit becomes the expensive one.
- Practice management
Senators press FINRA to require account transfer locks
A Senate letter puts transfer locks on the industry's timetable, turning a back-office safeguard into a client-retention issue.