Trader Talk

Raymond James launched new software to generate client proposals; the week in career moves and M&A at LPL, Kestra, Dynasty, BNY Mellon Wealth Management, Baird and Janney Montgomery Scott; and Adasina Social Capital’s social justice ETF hits $50 million in its first six months. Here’s what happened in wealth management this week.

When it comes to philosophies toward life insurance, there’s a pretty wide spectrum of views among advisors. At one end of the spectrum, there’s the “buy term and invest the difference” approach, where savings and insurance are viewed as entirely separate endeavors, such that it’s almost never desirable to have any savings component associated with

The RBC brought in $4 billion in assets to its U.S. wealth management business in the second quarter by hiring advisors, the company reported in its recent earnings report. This comes on top of $22 billion added over the previous eight quarters, said RBC president and CEO David McKay on a call discussing the company’s

Acorns Grow, the investing startup backed by celebrities including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Ashton Kutcher, agreed to go public by merging with a blank-check firm. The deal with Pioneer Merger values Acorns at $2.2 billion, the companies said in a statement on Thursday. The transaction also includes a $450 million PIPE, or a private

While cryptocurrencies’ advocates tout its potential to help lower-income communities build wealth, investors drawn to Bitcoin and other digital assets tend to have higher incomes and more money on hand to put in the market, according to market research firm Hearts & Wallets. An analysis of nearly 6,000 households found crypto investors are more likely

Like so many other small custodians after a series of industry acquisitions, TradePMR has been experiencing a boost in business and inquiries from financial advisors, and it’s striving to speed up its onboarding process. TradePMR, the Gainesville, Florida-based custodian that clears through Wells Fargo, signed 20 new firms in the last 12 months, according to

His critics and supporters agree: President Biden’s tax plans are radical. He wants a substantial increase in U.S. public spending and means to pay for it by raising taxes on the rich, in particular by almost doubling the top tax rate on investment income. Unsurprisingly, the idea seems to be playing well in opinion polls.

A year of economic dislocation brought on by the pandemic has left many clients thinking more deeply about their finances, with many advisors reporting that clients have low levels of confidence in their own financial wellness. The COVID-19 pandemic instilled in clients a greater appreciation of their financial vulnerabilities, leading them to think more strategically

The financial advice industry has a credibility problem: relatively few American consumers trust it. That creates a challenge for advisors and wealth managers who have long made trustworthiness a pillar of their brands as they seek to gain more clients and assets, according to a new survey by Morning Consult, a data research company. Advisors,

Stock market krisanapong detraphiphat | Moment | Getty Images Do you believe you are, or can be, a successful day trader, buying and selling stocks on a regular basis?   Do you believe that you, or anyone you know, can successfully time the market, going in and out of the market, and consistently make profits?

Senator Elizabeth Warren is proposing to nearly triple the IRS’s budget to help identify wealthy individuals who are cheating on their taxes. The Massachusetts Democrat is proposing to give the IRS a mandatory annual budget of $31.5 billion, up from the $11.9 billion the agency received from Congress for fiscal year 2021. Warren’s legislation would

Reg BI is getting real. When regulators began conducting examinations to see how firms were implementing the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest and the customer relationship summary rule, they were mainly looking for a good-faith effort. That was phase one. Going forward, firms can expect much closer scrutiny, according to Pete Driscoll, head of the SEC’s

It was 2011. I sat in Madison Square Garden, one of 20,000 fans watching Prince perform what would be one of his last major concerts. At the time, I worked out of a small office managing a portfolio of around 20 clients. My reach was very limited, my phone never rang unless it was a

Traders working at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), on May 19, 2021. NYSE Thematic tech is seeing big price declines, but most investors are not bailing out.  It’s been a brutal year for the formerly red-hot investment darling, “thematic tech” investing, a catch-all phrase for emerging tech sub-sectors like Cathie Wood’s Ark funds, clean

Merrill Lynch Wealth Management’s new training program for 3,000 fresh-faced brokers includes a ban on cold calls. Participants will instead be directed to use internal referrals or LinkedIn messages, according to a person familiar with matter. The change is part of an overhaul of the more than three-year-long program that will be announced Monday, the

Take a look at 2020 pay packages for bank CEOs and a headline theme emerges: total compensation rose even as bonuses decreased. But peel back a layer and you’ll find that in a year rife with distress and uncertainty, bank boards and compensation committees relied less on numbers and formulas, and more on their perceptions

Edelman Financial Engines acquired Viridian Advisors, which manages $850 million; Dynasty Financial Partners said it’s sponsoring three local pro athletes; Raymond James is upgrading its digital marketing for its advisors; and UBS hired two Northern California advisor teams away from Merrill Lynch. Here’s what’s news and other quick takes from the week in wealth management.

As we approach the anniversary of George Floyd’s death, investor interest in racial justice investing initiatives is surging. It makes sense, then, that racial justice investing — a form of socially responsible investing aimed at promoting racial justice, inclusion and diversity — is a growing asset class, one that RIAs and family offices will continue

As Wealthfront forges ahead with “self-driving money” for do-it-yourself investors, Betterment wants to ride in the front seat with financial advisors. The New York robo-advisor’s latest feature, named Co-pilot, is a new dashboard that pulls an advisor’s book of business into a single location and notifies them of chances to engage with clients. At launch,

With claims against a giant wealth manager related to Puerto Rican bonds tapering off as the U.S. territory inches closer to a settlement lifting it out of bankruptcy, clients won a major award from the firm in FINRA arbitration. UBS and UBS Puerto Rico must pay claimants Eugenia Fidalgo Gutierrez, Mercedes Fidalgo Gutierrez and Fidalgo

Despite the massive global expansion of sustainable investing assets, many investors are still unsure of where to find useful ESG data on which firms are living up to their corporate pledges. Nearly 75% of U.S. adults disagree or strongly disagree with economist Milton Friedman’s doctrine stating that companies have no social responsibility other than to

A multiyear push by the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer to appeal to RIAs is paying off, as a wirehouse breakaway team chose LPL Financial as custodian for its newly launched fee-only practice. Financial advisors Jennifer Kirby and Frank Granizo of Talisman Wealth Advisors left Merrill Lynch and dropped their FINRA registrations, picking LPL over many

Since it entered the U.S. RIA market last year, Canadian asset manager CI Financial has been on an M&A rampage. The Toronto-based company has purchased more than 14 independent advisory firms, giving it an approximate $63 billion asset presence in the U.S. But while the company has proven it can close sizable deals quickly, it

As she looks to the future of the advice industry, Eileen Murray expects that the most successful firms will be staffed with more diverse, tech-savvy and socially conscious advisors. The chairwoman of FINRA’s board of directors offered a clear-eyed assessment of roadblocks the industry is facing and a mostly hopeful vision of how firms will

Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, July 30, 2013. Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler said he would be aggressively pursuing bad financial actors who were “playing with working families’

A veteran financial advisor with one of the largest wealth managers alleges it’s the firm’s fault that white representatives “exclude and/or exploit minorities” when advisors join together in teams. Mohamed Shoukr lost all but a fraction of his book of business with Wells Fargo Advisors due to a discriminatory partnership between Shoukr, who is Egyptian

As with many fund sectors, long-term winners in international equity have started to shed some gains. For nearly all of the 20 international stock funds with the best 10-year returns — and at least $100 million in assets under management — investors’ recent shift from growth stocks to value has dealt a considerable blow. Nevertheless,

Just how much money are wealthy clients about to lose amid looming higher taxes on their investment profits? Advisors and market watchers are anxiously looking to next week to finally shed light on the red-hot question. An all-but-certain increase in the capital gains rate, a hike championed by President Biden that the Democrat-controlled Congress will

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Source: NYSE The Federal Reserve may be trying to project a coherent vision on what it expects its policy on future rate hikes will be, but the market cannot seem to agree on what version of the Fed it wants to believe. Does it want

After financial advisor Sarah Carlson fell victim to a violent hit-and-run driver, she became a long-distance triathlete — and a vivid example of why disability insurance is so important for clients. Carlson’s individual disability policy, combined with her Social Security benefits and a state victims’ fund, enabled her to avoid suffering a financial loss that