Trump Accounts add a complication advisors can't ignore
The Tax Foundation says the birth-year savings vehicles deepen an already tangled system — and the planning math isn't ready yet.
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Shook's 2027 reboot won't restore the badge's power
The pause gives advisors a rare opening to rebuild their brands around verifiable client outcomes instead of a logo.
Vanguard ownership turns Altruist renewal into the real test
The deal keeps Altruist standalone for now; advisors should weigh the next contract against what independence was worth.
Parents want schools to teach money and trust institutions that help
An Everfi survey of 750 parents finds 79% trust institutions that educate, a ready-made next-gen client channel for advisors.
Fidelity's M&A report is a seller's checklist
Buyers are doing fewer, bigger deals and screening for culture, client experience and expanded services — which makes Fidelity's mid-year M&A report a seller's checklist.
Vanguard-Altruist deal turns custody independence into an open question
Advisors should watch pricing, service, and product terms for signs that Altruist's new parent is favoring its own investors.
IRS proposes 10-basis-point cap for Trump accounts
Proposed regulations confine the growth period to low-cost U.S. index funds and ETFs, with no leverage and Treasury's SPYM pick the starter vehicle.
Clients Need a Definition of Investing, Not a Lecture
A finance professor's essay hands advisors the frame they need for the speculation conversation.
Altruist's new owner brings an advice agenda
The platform says it stays standalone; Vanguard's $12 trillion advice push gives advisers three questions to ask before renewal.
Medicaid planning's sharpest trade-off comes due at the bedside
Asset-preservation strategies that fund inheritances can quietly strip the resources available for a client's own care; the advisor's job is to put that cost in writing before a health crisis.
Pontera's non-discretionary tool turns held-away 401(k)s into billable work
The September launch adds the compliance and communication layer that lets RIAs and broker-dealers turn workplace retirement accounts into billed relationships.
The 11.6x RIA multiple is a retention premium
Advisor Growth Strategies' record 11.6x median rewards the owners who gave next-gen equity away before they hired a banker.
Cogent Bank launches trust unit as Florida wealth surges
Orlando's $2.45 billion-asset bank hires Amerant's former fiduciary chief and bets a trust unit pays for itself by keeping clients.
Edward Jones's $5,000 robo is a bet on the handoff
The hybrid robo undercuts Fidelity and Vanguard on price, but the lasting test is whether small accounts graduate into planning relationships.
State sales tax turns gold into a state-by-state trade
Advisors recommending bullion should check the client's delivery address before the trade, not after.
A tax-free Social Security play with a 2028 problem
Mahaney's IRA-withdrawal strategy pairs the senior deduction with the modified adjusted gross income test to reach roughly $92,000 in tax-free income—a number tied to a deduction that expires after 2028.
Calculator wave prices every advisor's exit
Free valuation tools from recruiters and aggregators are resetting the negotiation floor for advisors planning a move.
Cresset pulls $4B UBS team, resets breakaway floor
A 16-person Boca Raton team chose a PE-backed RIA over a wirehouse, and the private-wealth recruiting math has shifted.
HSA participation rises, retirement investing lags
PSCA's 2026 survey finds 83% of employees contributing to an HSA but only 22% investing it—an opening for advisors to reposition the account in retirement-income plans.
Vistria's Curi deal keeps employees on the cap table
The rollover tells advisor-sellers to price retention risk, not just the headline multiple.
NFP survey finds a succession gap advisors can fill
Among 273 executive-benefits decision-makers, 49% lack a plan for leadership transitions while 62% call succession a key focus—a spread that turns NQDC into an advisor's opening with owner-clients.
Treasury risk premium turns bond ballast into a scenario
A $40 trillion debt overhang shows up in long yields, and retirement income is the collateral.
Gen Z saves for retirement, with a sportsbook in the plan
Three new surveys show a generation optimistic about retirement while routing investment money through speculative channels — a planning challenge for advisors that doubles as an opening.
Your brand already exists. Go where the yeses are.
Sheri Fitts's brand-building play is to mine the yeses, size the segment, and test the match — a marketing discipline most practices skip.
AI compliance hinges on a human-in-the-loop policy
A 411-firm survey finds 48% can point to a human-review policy for AI output, leaving the rest to answer an exam letter built on Regulation S-P.
The 71% succession gap in executive benefits
NFP finds 81% of employers cannot afford to lose top talent, but 71% do not design benefits around succession.
Alfa Prime turns the investment committee into software
The multi-model AI 'investment committee' debuts with a small cohort of institutional partners, leaving advisors to wait for the validation that earns client-portfolio trust.
Wealth taxes turn residency into a deadline
State wealth-tax votes are coming due, and the planning window closes before the ballot does.
For RIAs, the salary-basis test is a payroll audit
DOL Fact Sheet #17G on white-collar exemptions is a classification checklist for client associates and paraplanners—one best used before a wage claim forces the question.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Orion's second AssetMark hire puts integration on the clock
RIAs on either platform should watch for one stack to swallow the other.
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.
Rebalancing software: the two-hour setup edge
RIABiz's three-way review shows why implementation speed and ease of use can outweigh feature breadth.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.