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UMB Financial in Kansas City, Missouri, has agreed to buy a Midwest peer’s health savings account business that includes client assets of $500 million. The $41 billion-asset UMB said in a press release after markets closed Monday that the seller is the $46 billion-asset Old National Bancorp in Evansville, Indiana. The assets, which consist of

Everyone worries about too much inflation. But merely discussing it can make goods and services even more expensive and potentially disrupt retirement planning. This dynamic, now center stage as consumer prices have ticked up rapidly each month since April 2021, puts wealth advisors between a rock and a hard place when it comes to walking

Henry Yoshida isn’t a fan of referring to alternative investments as, well, alternatives. He understands that is how they’re categorized by the industry and consumers. But for the co-founder and CEO of Rocket Dollar, investments into things like real estate, private equity and even digital assets are far from fringe. Instead, he believes they are

After the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade on Friday, ending women’s right to abortions nationwide, some banks jumped into a highly charged social policy debate that the industry long sought to avoid. Both JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America made it known that they are generally following the lead of Citigroup, which recently

A decade after a former Citigroup financial advisor said the firm first cut off her access to its stock allocation system, she received vindication in the form of a FINRA arbitration award. Erin Ann Daly won an award of more than $1.4 million from Citigroup Global Markets and other Citi entities for compensatory damages plus

Add Napa wineries, tours of Petra and a stay in a Versailles hotel to the list of perks Bank of America’s biggest spenders can now expect.  In the high-stakes battle for affluent clients, the bank is rolling out a host of travel sweeteners to ultra high net worth customers. It has partnered with luxury travel

A federal investigation into the meme stock frenzy that gripped Reddit investors in early 2021 has led to a host of recommended policy changes from the House Committee on Financial Services and calls for better treatment of all retail investors.  The majority staff report titled “Game Stopped” was released Friday by Committee Chair Maxine Waters,

In an age of political gridlock, one cause is gaining rare bipartisan momentum in Washington: helping Americans save for retirement. Several bills concerning retirement plans are currently making their way through Congress, which is expected to eventually combine them into one package: SECURE 2.0.  “Bipartisanship is strong on achieving this objective,” said Paul Richman, chief

At first glance, Atlantic Union Bankshares’ decision this month to sell its registered investment advisor subsidiary looks like something of a head-scratcher.  It’s not like the unit, Dixon Hubard Feinour & Brown, was underperforming.  Just the opposite, in fact. In a little more than four years as part of Atlantic Union, DHFB’s assets under management

With complex questions about how wealth managers can boost Black representation among financial advisors and executives, Raymond James may have at least one answer. That’s because Philadelphia area complex manager Tony Barrett and Maryland financial advisor Kaon Nelson created the firm’s Black Financial Advisors Network in 2013 with the support of CEO Paul Reilly and

When Britney Spears announced her engagement to longtime boyfriend Sam Asghari last fall, Octavia Spencer had some advice. “Make him sign a prenup,” the Oscar-winning actress reportedly wrote on Spears’ Instagram page.  The pop singer did just that, with Asghari later posting on his Instagram, “Of course, we’re getting an ironclad prenup to protect my

When Citibank Global Wealth Management head of technology and infrastructure Julia Carreon joined the firm last year, she ran into troubles often faced by clients. It took her six months to roll over her accounts from her prior job through paper checks that kept getting lost in the mail. “Eleven years ago, I said we

If recent judicial findings in Los Angeles are any indication, Nasdaq’s board diversity rule and policies like it could face increasing challenges by interest groups going forward. And should they largely succeed, it is not only diversity goals in the financial services industry that would be hindered, but also the interests of investors.  Earl Carr

As small and midsize advisory firms merge into larger wealth managers seeking new business lines in a competitive industry, Advisor Group secured its second big deal in as many months. The private equity-backed wealth manager agreed to purchase Holbrook, New York-based American Portfolios Financial Services, an independent brokerage and RIA spanning 850 financial advisors and

In a new episode of the Financial Planning Podcast, Chris Zuczek explains why he believes data centralization done right is a game changer and what customer satisfaction means to him.  Zuczek, chief product officer for Skience, is a 20-year financial services veteran who joined the solutions and consulting provider last year. Before that, Zuczek was

Pass rates for those taking the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exams tanked in 2021, reaching a record-setting low. It’s a phenomenon that’s led to a lot of hand-wringing among current and future candidates for the charter who wonder if the three-level exam was just “too hard” that year or whether disruptions caused by the pandemic,

Ordinary investors can soon build their very own versions of the S&P 500 index, and for the price of a large Starbucks latte. Fidelity Investments said Tuesday that it would allow Main Street investors to create custom indexes and pour money into their underlying stocks. With no account minimums and a flat $4.99 monthly fee

It’s hard to think of many upsides to selling a stock at a big loss, but there is one: Lower tax bills. Investors who take a loss in a taxable account can use it to offset capital gains taxes owed from selling stocks that have appreciated. Such tax-loss harvesting usually gets talked about at year-end,

Wealth management’s future as an industry could depend on attracting new and diverse talent and convincing the current and next generations of financial advisors to adopt technology tools. Executives from J.P. Morgan Chase, Envestnet, Northwestern Mutual and RIA-backing private investors Wealth Partners Capital Group speaking this week at Financial Planning’s INVEST Conference explained how wealth

Many foreign banks have struggled to make inroads in the United States, and several have decided to pare back their presence in recent years. HSBC last year announced that it was ending its attempt to establish a competitive mass-market retail presence in the U.S., and MUFG Union has agreed to a merger with U.S. Bank,

A congressional appropriations committee wants to give the Internal Revenue Service $1 billion more in funding to improve taxpayer service and technology and make the overall tax system fairer. The House Appropriations Committee released its draft fiscal year 2023 Financial Services and General Government funding bill on Tuesday, which is being considered by a subcommittee

Data management, client access to products, changing demographics and, of course, cryptocurrencies represent key issues shaping the future of wealth management technology. Those are some of the key takeaways from the first day of the Financial Planning INVEST Conference, where industry professionals and big names like Ric Edelman of the Digital Assets Council of Financial

Financial advisors seeking to preserve the newfound wealth of athlete and entertainer clients face a tough question of how to support the friends and family who helped them make it big. On the one hand, the friends and family “were there from the beginning — before fame, fortune and multi-million dollar deals”; on the other,

With a “connected client journey” built on Morgan Stanley’s scale in three wealth management channels, the wirehouse aims to convince financial advisors to resist the lure of independence. In a June 14 media event displaying the firm’s ecosystem of self-directed, workplace and advisor-led wealth management in the wake of its massive acquisitions of E-Trade and

With a digital tool for every aspect of an advisor’s daily life, wealth management is increasingly becoming a technology business.  The latest Financial Planning Tech Survey, finds that digital transformation is happening across the financial services industry at breakneck speed, and advisors are embracing it like never before.  But the annual analysis reveals that even

The SEC started the week by announcing that Charles Schwab has agreed to pay $187 million to settle allegations that it misled investors who used Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, the firm’s robo-advisor product. In federal documents, three Schwab investment advisor subsidiaries are accused of not telling clients the truth about how their money was being allocated.

Despite the effects of equity volatility, inflation and the war in Ukraine on the larger economy, wealth management M&A and other financing deals appear likely to set more records this year. Under separate respective agreements unveiled June 13 and June 7, wealth managers Cerity Partners and Snowden Lane Partners secured financing through a private equity

U.S. stocks have entered a bear market and if history is any guide, it could be long and painful. This is the fourth such event for the S&P 500 Index over the past two decades. While the last bear market of 2020 was mostly a so-called shock trade brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, earlier

New curbs on inherited retirement plans are potentially doubly onerous for some heirs. People coming into family fortunes used to be able to spend down an inherited individual retirement account or 401(k) over their lifetime. For younger heirs especially, that benefit was particularly valuable because it gave the assets many years to grow. In 2019,

Ethically minded investors are growing more skeptical of ESG investing, wondering whether it actually furthers environmental or social justice aims. At the same time, demand for ethical investing is only going to increase as progressive millennials and Gen Z-ers accrue more financial assets, often by inheriting that money from their conservative parents. If the long-anticipated SEC rules on ESG do