Advisors archive
Every Advisors story, newest first. 900 stories
10 stories
- 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.
- Practice management
Alts tools move into the everyday advisor workflow
Luma's platform updates push alternative investing into the tools advisors already use, and the rest of the month's releases follow.
- Recruiting & transitions
LPL's $1.6B Cambridge grab sets the breakaway benchmark
A 24-advisor, multi-generational team's move from Cambridge shows what a platform must offer to win a breakaway.
- Tax & estate planning
Europe's transfer-tax map gives cross-border planners their triggers
A new Tax Foundation map shows 24 of 35 European countries levy estate, inheritance, or gift taxes—and the bill turns on relationship, region, and residence.
- Tax & estate planning
IRA Trust Planning Is Now a Maintenance Obligation
Sarah Brenner's four-point checklist flags the expensive private letter ruling, the lump-sum payout trap, and the beneficiary form that never gets updated.
- Products & portfolios
Proposed Trump Account rules leave a short list of large-cap index funds
A 90% U.S. equity test, a bond ban, and a 0.1% fee cap leave little room for target-date or ESG funds.
- Products & portfolios
The 60/40's bond sleeve is no longer automatic ballast
Inflation broke the relationship that made bonds cushion equity losses, so advisors must now stress-test the 40% as a scenario bet rather than a default.
- Succession & selling a firm
Sticker multiples shrink as retention and earnout clauses bite
Sellers who accept headline revenue multiples without discounting post-closing contingencies are pricing the buyer's risk, not their own cash flow.
- Practice management
The held-away 401(k) becomes a fee line
Pontera's September launch turns held-away 401(k)s into billable work, and the HSA and Medicare numbers show which practices will collect.
1 story
- Products & portfolios
First close is the only close that matters in evergreen secondaries
A discount to audited NAV is real value, but it is spent quickly as assets grow; advisors should time allocations accordingly.
4 stories
- Practice management
Orion's second AssetMark hire puts integration on the clock
RIAs on either platform should watch for one stack to swallow the other.
- The Advisor's Note
The custody account is becoming the customer relationship
Schwab's branch push, crypto boundary, and referral floor show why RIAs must reprice their custody risk.
- Practice management
Rebalancing software: the two-hour setup edge
RIABiz's three-way review shows why implementation speed and ease of use can outweigh feature breadth.
- Recruiting & transitions
Goldman's late custody entry: a product, not a platform
Advisors weighing the fledgling custodian face a managed-account restriction and a nudge toward Goldman's trading and financing desks.
14 stories
- Practice management
Schwab's branch push turns custodian into competitor
Four quiet pilot branches 'caught fire,' and now Schwab plans 30 Schwab Wealth Advisory offices by 2027—on the same street corners as the 16,000 RIAs whose $5.2 trillion it holds in custody.
- Products & portfolios
Schwab's crypto line forces advisors to pick a side
Advisors who want digital assets in client accounts have to source them outside the Schwab custody relationship.
- Products & portfolios
The yield dip is a repricing window for advisors
Fund managers are at their heaviest equity allocation since 2021 while flagging bond yields as a top risk—the Treasury buyback dip is the moment to reprice duration.
- Practice management
AI is the capacity answer to the advisor shortage
Financial Advisor Magazine's 2025 RIA survey offers RIAs a playbook: automate the preparation, keep the human judgment.
- Products & portfolios
Box Spreads Turn Borrowing Into an Options Trade
The strategy gives wealthy clients liquidity without a tax event, but its edge over a bank depends on options pricing.
- Practice management
Pontera adds a nondiscretionary option for held-away 401(k)s
A September launch gives advisers a supervised, nondiscretionary channel for recommending changes inside workplace accounts — and a way to charge for them.
- Practice management
Show the work: landing your first HNW client
A CPA who watched Nick George handle a real situation sent him his first high-net-worth client.
- Tax & estate planning
Medicare Advantage satisfaction slips again, and advisors get an opening
A second straight year of falling satisfaction gives advisors a reason to put Medicare coverage review on the retirement income calendar.
- Products & portfolios
Advisors steady on today, darker on the next six months
The WMIQ Advisor Sentiment Index holds above neutral on current conditions, but the six-month outlook has worsened for a third straight month.
- Products & portfolios
IRS's Trump account proposal turns on a 10-basis-point cap
Proposed regulations would confine growth-period Trump account assets to low-fee U.S. index funds, leaving advisors to focus on contribution timing and post-17 repositioning.
- Products & portfolios
Clients are still buying risk, but only the quality kind
Weekly flows show large-cap equities and high-grade bonds gaining, a barbell with concentration and income questions for advisors.
- The Advisor's Note
Schwab keeps the small accounts. Edward Jones buys in.
Independent advisors have until 2027 to build their own route to small accounts. Schwab and Edward Jones are already taking theirs.
- Succession & selling a firm
A free exit score is resettling RIA prices
FP Transitions' 1-to-100 tool weights profit over AUM, and Stratos's name-preserving deal shows buyers are already paying for cash flow.
- Practice management
The $100 million case for sending a woman to the pitch
Most clients say they don't require a female advisor. A $100 million NewEdge win suggests some do.
11 stories
- Practice management
Americans use AI all the time. For money, they still want a human.
Seventy-four percent of U.S. adults use AI regularly or occasionally in daily life. For financial guidance, 72% want a human leading. That gap is an advisor's opening.
- Succession & selling a firm
FP Transitions' free tool puts a number on an RIA's exit math
A free 1-to-100 score from FP Transitions gives RIA owners a rough read on sale value — and a reminder that buyers now pay for profit potential, not AUM size.
- Tax & estate planning
The $64,000 inheritance should drive the plan
Most Boomer inheritances run small, making the retirement income plan the real wealth transfer.
- Products & portfolios
SEC asks FINRA for an accredited-investor exam that tests know-how
An exam-based accreditation path would give advisors a new way to qualify clients for private-market sleeves.
- Products & portfolios
Invesco cuts fees 20%, prices real estate exit at 95 cents
Advisors weigh a 20% fee break against a 95-cent tender in a fund with a $2.2 billion redemption queue.
- Tax & estate planning
Social Security's 'free' lump sum is a permanent benefit cut
Advisors who run the numbers out to the second death can protect a younger spouse's survivor income floor from a $160-a-month reduction.
- Practice management
Vestmark at 25: $50 billion, five cycles, and an AI bet
The firm has survived five market cycles; its new AI tools face a simpler test, advisor adoption.
- Practice management
Edward Jones's $5,000 digital pilot makes the advisor network the product
Edward Jones is testing a $5,000 digital product that could feed its branch network, the opposite of Schwab's upmarket referral floor.
- Succession & selling a firm
SEI-backed Stratos acquires $400 million Illinois planning firm
A multi-year search brings RPI into SEI-backed Stratos with its name intact.
- Practice management
A California trust fight tests the slayer statute before trial
A murder suspect's bid to tap a family trust for his defense tests how vesting, paperwork, and the presumption of innocence meet in estate planning.
- The Advisor's Note
The Alt Platform Itself Is Now Diligence
The SEC's 46% markup case and CAIS's $2 billion round force the same question: who owns the shelf, and what did the client actually pay?