Advisors archive
Every Advisors story, newest first. 898 stories
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- Tax & estate planning
IRS Notice 2026-62 treats one 351 ETF conversion sequence as taxable
The guidance expresses no view on funds that keep assets matching their strategy, and Baird's Steffen says sound conversions remain viable.
29 stories
- Tax & estate planning
IRS guidance targets abusive 351 ETF conversions; Baird's Steffen says sound deals remain viable
Notice 2026-62 and companion Rev. Rul. 2026-20, issued Sept. 28, treat one seeding-and-redemption sequence as a taxable exchange while expressing no view on funds that keep assets matching their strategy.
- Tax & estate planning
Social Security sets a 3.6% COLA for 2027, lifting average retired-worker checks by $75
Payments start in January, SSI checks rise Dec. 31, and the earnings cap climbs to $192,300 from $184,500.
- Products & portfolios
Morgan Stanley posts $15.2B in alt net flows as wirehouses push alts and AI
InvestmentNews coverage names Wells Fargo alongside Merrill and Morgan Stanley among the wirehouses expanding alternatives and AI tools for advisors.
- Recruiting & transitions
Hoge moves $3B-asset Truist team to Captrust, citing employee equity
Captrust says just over 68% of its more than 2,000 employees hold a stake.
- Recruiting & transitions
LPL adds $1 billion Seattle team from Northwestern Mutual
Prince Financial Services founders Julie Prince and Dave Burnett each spent about 20 years at Northwestern Mutual.
- Practice management
Map client task flow before an RIA operations manual, WealthManagement.com column argues
A firm should be able to name, in order and under ten seconds, who handles each step of a $20,000 client withdrawal.
- Tax & estate planning
One in six $25M clients have no estate plan, will or trust
A WealthManagement.com column cites surveys showing two in five wealthy individuals lack a comprehensive estate plan and few affluent investors get charitable planning advice.
- Recruiting & transitions
Captrust acquires $3 billion Truist team; some members receive equity
The 13-person Hoge-Barrett Group registered with the Raleigh RIA on Oct. 9; terms of the deal were not disclosed.
- Tax & estate planning
A WealthManagement.com column says hotel estate plans must transfer operating authority, not just ownership
The column breaks succession into three transfers: ownership, decision rights and operating authority.
- Tax & estate planning
Social Security sets a 3.6% COLA for 2027
The raise averages about $75 a month and lifts the average retired-worker benefit to $2,162.67, according to The Senior Citizens League.
- Tax & estate planning
Social Security sets 3.6% COLA for 2027, lifting benefits in January
The adjustment covers more than 72 million recipients and raises the average retired-worker benefit to $2,170 a month.
- Tax & estate planning
Donor-advised funds hold $328 billion as advisors weigh income-spike and complex-asset gifts
Sponsors assess complex gifts case by case; advisors should confirm capabilities first.
- Tax & estate planning
WealthManagement.com column argues client pride and leverage worsen premium-financed insurance losses
The author recommends independent scrutiny rather than automatic unwinding for troubled premium-financed arrangements.
- Practice management
Small-business retirement plan adoption climbs about 60% since 2019, Gusto data show
State mandates are pushing micro-business owners to advisors for SEP, SIMPLE and small 401(k) plans, Security Benefit's Aaron Tallen says
- Succession & selling a firm
VestGen lands Willow Tree credit facility to fund RIA acquisitions
The Chicago aggregator has 19 firms and $7.5 billion in platform assets; the credit facility's size was not disclosed.
- Recruiting & transitions
Perennial and Economos teams launch with $1B-plus at Integrated Partners and LPL
The Perennial team moves more than $500 million from Hightower to an Integrated Partners platform, while Nick Economos takes about $580 million from Merrill to LPL's supported independence model.
- Practice management
LIMRA: Only four in 10 pre-retirees work with a financial professional
Among 486 pre-retirees surveyed, 88% have thought about retirement income, but 76% have no plan or spent under five hours on one.
- Practice management
Goldman Sachs survey: 36% of workers earning more than $300,000 live paycheck to paycheck
Two advisors told InvestmentNews they work through liabilities, benefits and reserves before touching a portfolio for high-income clients.
- Practice management
InvestmentNews columnist splits RIA sale reasons into founder readiness or capped growth
The first-person column says most RIAs have an intention problem rather than a growth problem, and the writer's firm is exploring a first acquisition.
- Practice management
Logan Paul's $16.5 million Pikachu sale pushes trading-card collections into planning meetings
Florida planner Thomas Ruggie's 10-point scorecard covers documentation, insurance and exit planning.
- Products & portfolios
Wealth Enhancement strategist says AI creates false diversification in alternatives
Ayako Yoshioka told a Goldman Sachs Asset Management webinar that AI is now a theme in public fixed income, venture, private equity and real estate, not only equities.
- Products & portfolios
Nontraded BDC redemption requests ease to 9.8% in third quarter, Fitch says
The funds still cap quarterly repurchases at 5% of shares, so advisors are underwriting liquidity client by client.
- Tax & estate planning
NIL pay comes as 1099 income with nothing withheld, Dynasty's LaPorta says
A Wealth Solutions Report Q&A with four advisors covers taxes, budgeting and LLC formation for college athletes earning NIL money.
- Tax & estate planning
Ed Slott's top-10 RMD mistakes: rollovers, aggregation and a double-RMD trap
Delaying a first RMD to April 1 means two distributions that year, one of ten errors on an Oct. 14 list.
- Tax & estate planning
Treasury rules auto-enroll every eligible U.S. child in a Trump Account
Kitces' Oct. 14 analysis says families must claim the auto-opened account to control it, and that auto-enrollment widens the pool for charitable gifts.
- Practice management
Financial Planning column: why advisors often abandon AI note-takers after a month
The author, writing from decades of coaching senior operators, blames habit and the brain's caution about anything new rather than the software itself.
- The Advisor's Note
Connecticut Wealth Management hires Subatomic for five-year AI build
The $5.2 billion RIA expects a first phase before the end of 2026 and says the system is intended to help maintain its 35-to-1 client-to-advisor ratio.
- Products & portfolios
Ballentine Income Opportunities Fund III files Form D with no total offering amount
The pooled fund names Ballentine Partners, LLC and Ballentine Funds GP, LLC as related persons and reports $0 sold to date.
- Practice management
Connecticut Wealth Management hires Subatomic for five-year AI build
The $5.2 billion RIA expects a first phase to go live before the end of 2026 and says the system will help it maintain its 35-to-1 client-to-advisor ratio.
10 stories
- Recruiting & transitions
State Street launches Apex-powered RIA custody unit for $1 billion-plus RIAs
The Boston bank is targeting RIAs managing more than $1 billion with the service, re-entering a custody business it left five years ago, RIABiz reported.
- Practice management
FINRA Q4 agenda lists 21 priorities and four SEC rule proposals
The regulator says it has advanced more than 20 SEC rule filings since April 2025 and plans an effective date for its collective investment trust exemption.
- Practice management
OpenArc and SageSpring build in-house advisor training programs
Financial Planning reports a three-year OpenArc class and a two-year SageSpring mentorship as alternatives to sending new advisors out alone.
- Recruiting & transitions
Eight Raymond James brokers register $1.4B RIA, keep custody at firm
Seven of the eight advisors are keeping brokerage licenses through Kingswood Capital Partners while the new firm will continue to custody with the St. Petersburg, Florida-based firm.
- Tax & estate planning
Cerulli: 46% of 401(k) participants want anytime withdrawals, 40% a personalized retirement plan
The report also finds 39% of participants want guaranteed monthly payments that last after their savings are used up.
- Practice management
BNY INSITE conference poll: 67% have AI budgets, 65% lack a metric
The Oct. 13 WealthManagement.com column argues connecting advisory technology matters more than adding it.
- Succession & selling a firm
WealthManagement.com column argues sell-and-stay unblocks advisor succession plans
The column says identity, not valuation or terms, stalls advisor succession, and a phased structure separates an executed plan from one on a whiteboard.
- Practice management
Anthropic announces Claude plugin connecting to Schwab, Orion and advisor systems
The plugin connects to providers including Schwab, Orion, Addepar, BlackRock, Envestnet, iCapital, Wealthbox, Wealth.com and Zocks, with advisors choosing which services to connect during setup.
- Succession & selling a firm
September RIA deals: median acquired firm held $489.5M in assets
Two transactions accounted for 68.3% of the month's $38.16 billion in acquired-firm AUM, per Wealth Solutions Report.
- Succession & selling a firm
Build RIA leadership and operating structure before a sale, Wealth Solutions Report says
The article recommends a future organizational chart to identify missing roles and capabilities before M&A.