Trader Talk

For financial advisors, cryptocurrencies just might be internet 2.0. Many advisors I know who were active during the dot-com mania in the 1990s have described the experience this way: “Clients wanted internet stocks and tech IPOs. If I gave them what they wanted, they could lose money. If I didn’t, I could lose a client.”

Sustainable investing is not just an attractive approach for clients looking to inject ESG into their retirement portfolios. The strategy is also a growing one that now delivers broader outperformance. The 20 best-performing Morningstar-designated sustainable U.S. funds, which either claim to have a sustainability objective or use ESG criteria for their investment selection, notched an

With the reintroduction of comprehensive Social Security legislation this week, experts say the willingness of Congress to act may finally be starting to meet the urgency of the task at hand. If lawmakers continue to do nothing significant in the way of Social Security bills, the benefits of tens of millions of Americans will fall

After its fourth straight quarter of record profit before taxes, the Global Wealth Management Americas unit of UBS plans to reach for more U.S. clients with a new digital service. In keeping with recent trends at UBS, the wirehouse saw a net loss to its headcount of financial advisors but a step up in their

Gina Haspel spent three decades at the Central Intelligence Agency, ultimately becoming its first permanent female director. Now she’s leading an effort by a U.S. law firm to advise family offices on risks to the world’s ultrawealthy. Haspel, along with one-time U.S. Department of Justice official Andrew Hruska, will oversee King & Spalding’s risk-advisory service,

Add racism to the list of serious allegations such as murder, harassment of women and child sexual assault that often are nowhere to be found on FINRA BrokerCheck. One former LPL Financial advisor’s situation shows the inconsistencies in the disclosure database. LPL parted ways with financial advisor Eileen L. Cure of Cure & Associates in

Women are still very underrepresented in leadership roles at financial services institutions, despite incremental progress in closing gender and racial gaps, according to new data from McKinsey. But companies have a rare opportunity right now, thanks to the pandemic’s workplace upheavals, to make changes that could permanently improve the situation for women, according to Jill

With its $1.1 billion cash-and-stock acquisition of TriState Capital Holdings, Raymond James Financial could deploy its bank’s relatively low-cost deposits into more high-yielding loans, fueling growth at a time when interest rates remain stubbornly low and profits from lending have narrowed. Raymond James Chairman and CEO Paul Reilly said the $12.2 billion-asset TriState, a Pittsburgh-based

An ex-wirehouse team and a former Ameriprise financial advisor merged their practices together to become the 17th this year to join a fast-growing wealth manager with international backing. Geoff Stufflebam, Kraig Bode, Ken Roberts and Shweta Agarwal launched NobleVest Private Wealth in Springfield, Missouri, in an independent move affiliating the new firm with Sanctuary Wealth,

More than a half dozen former Wells Fargo Private Bank financial advisors joined a new fee-only RIA whose founders say they’re restoring the practices’ vanished team structures. Since Private Wealth Asset Management founders Timothy Kneen and Jeff Shipley launched the Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based RIA on Sept. 3, they’ve added six other advisors who managed a

Wealthtech company Addepar is spending some of the money it raised over the summer to buy AdvisorPeak, which builds trading and rebalancing software for financial advisors. Addepar’s aggregation, analytics and reporting technology is used by advisors, family offices and large financial institutions to manage data on a collective $3 trillion in client assets. D1 Capital

An advisor who had “special investment opportunities” is pleading guilty to just pocketing the money. A new fintech accelerator that has already generated $1.6 billion in venture capital is taking new applications. And as always, we have news of advisors on the move throughout the country. See where they left and landed below. Scroll through

Wealth managers investing billions of dollars toward racial equity are confronting disparities that are growing worse in some ways even as there are some notable signs of change. By sponsoring a virtual conference that’s a mix of an investment seminar, a motivational meeting and intentional outreach to Black clients and professionals, firms such as Morgan

TD Bank may have a branding issue with its new automated investing service. The bank this week launched the aptly named TD Automated Investing, billed as its first robo advisor, and TD Automated Investing Plus, a hybrid robo that provides access to a team of human advisors. With a risk tolerance questionnaire matching clients to

Financial advisors are famously averse to marketing and branding — which is why most don’t realize there’s a crucial distinction between the two. Don’t let FOMO propel you onto social networks where your audience isn’t engaged, writes Tara Meehan.Jason Alden/Bloomberg News Brand is the authentic image advisors put out to the world about their firm

In a new episode of the Financial Planning Podcast, the former head of enforcement with FINRA explains some of the most complex regulatory issues facing wealth management. Susan Schroeder is a partner with WilmerHale, where she’s the vice chair of the law firm’s securities and financial services department. She served as FINRA’s top enforcement officer

Remember when Dunkin’ Donuts became simply Dunkin’? Or when Airbnb opted for a more modern logo? Branding changes can help a company convey a refocus of services, an evolving client base or new business circumstances. The same is true for financial planning firms — mine included. Our recent rebranding to SageMint Wealth, while requiring a

Money managers are hiking bets on the great inflation trade of 2021, as the biggest risk to price stability in more than a decade rocks corporate boardrooms and Wall Street trading floors. With supply chains and labor markets tightening anew, the latest Bank of America survey shows investors have rarely been this overweight in assets

Financial advisors and wealth management firms concerned that the Biden Administration will trash the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest immediately can rest a bit more easily. At a panel held Oct. 19 by the New York University School of Law’s Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement, SEC Chair Gary Gensler promised vigorous enforcement of the existing

As the RIA market continues its inexorable expansion, client service will get more personalized, Charles Schwab executives told advisors at their annual IMPACT conference this week. These were two of the trends of an opening keynote with Schwab CEO Walt Bettinger and head of advisor services Bernard Clark to kick off the conference. Direct indexing,

After much anticipation, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF is scheduled to begin trading on Tuesday. To be clear, this isn’t an exchange-traded fund that is backed by actual Bitcoin. Instead, it is backed by futures tied to the cryptocurrency. Before you rush headlong into this market, it’s important to understand that there are crucial differences.

FINRA is considering new rules aimed at the “narrow issue” of disclosures for wealth managers and other members that offer certain cryptocurrency assets, CEO Robert Cook said. Cook made the comment in a panel held with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce and other regulators at the New York Law School’s Ronald H. Filler Institute for Financial

While markets ended the third quarter more or less even with where they were at the end of the second, Charles Schwab continued growing at a rapid pace. The brokerage opened more than 1 million new brokerage accounts for the fourth consecutive quarter and has opened 6 million new accounts so far in 2021, according

It may be tough to find any cause for concern when evaluating the gains made by the industry’s best-performing value funds. The 20 with the biggest 10-year gains, and at least $100 million in assets, have matched, if not bested, broader indexes and peers with an average 16% annualized return, Morningstar Direct data show. The

When Cortney Kotzian walked into TD Ameritrade in Omaha, Nebraska, to discuss moving into a new role, she felt excited about a fresh opportunity. Kotzian, 38, had been working in sales at the giant brokerage for more than a year and a half. She’d won a promotion and an “employee of the month” award. But

Jim Exley stared down at a new client’s risk score and couldn’t comprehend the number he saw. Earlier in the day, the client had talked about how, in addition to his role at a Fortune 500 company, he had covert side gigs — including selling stereo equipment out of his car — that could have

A year after the SEC filed its civil case against a financial advisor, he now faces a federal criminal rap of 31 counts of fraud, identity theft, money laundering and obstruction of justice. Mark J. Boucher, a former registered representative of Raymond James Financial Services and the founder of a Carlsbad, California-based RIA called Strategic

Morgan Stanley’s wealth manager is operating much differently than it and other giants of the industry did in CEO James Gorman’s first 30 years in the business, he said. After acquiring a massive retirement plan consulting firm with $43 billion of fee-based assets across 600,000 participants, Morgan Stanley’s wealth management unit is expanding to the

BNY Mellon Pershing has a new business unit that aims to be one part turnkey asset management platform and one part technology incubator. Called Pershing X, the unit’s aim is to accelerate the development of a single suite to provide RIAs, broker-dealers and trust companies with everything they need, from software like client relationship management

LPL gobbled up several breakaway teams this week and announced a partnership with Lincoln Financial that allows it to access Lincoln’s Strategic Market Solution Plus. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are backing a fintech. Thinking that marriage equality might diminish the need for an Accredited Domestic Partnership Advisor designation, the College for Financial Planning