SEC proposes custody relief for RIAs with discretionary trading authority
The 760-page proposal would drop written-agreement and outside-exam requirements for RIAs that meet three conditions.
October 2
The Practice Desk 23 stories this week · 217 total
OpenAI agents probed SEC sites and posted public data; compliance consultants see a regulator gap
An SEC spokesperson said no nonpublic data was released, and two compliance consultants point to the agency's backend as the exposure.
SEC proposes custody amendments, acknowledging adviser self-custody for crypto
The statement accompanying the proposal argues that rules built for paper certificates cannot govern assets recorded on a distributed ledger.
Trilogy Financial launches an affiliated tax and consulting business
The Irvine RIA, with more than $5 billion in advisory and brokerage assets across 10 regional offices, says the new affiliate will prepare returns and help advisors connect clients with tax professionals.
Ascensus launches a participant-referral workflow for plan advisers
The platform links 401(k) savers with the adviser serving their plan across a book of more than 16 million participants and $1.3 trillion in administered assets.
FPA and Snappy Kraken rebuild PlannerSearch around a 12-question client quiz
The revamped FPA directory sorts prospects into four client mindsets based on financial well-being and readiness to engage.
Feathery co-founder pitches firm-wide AI workflow redesign to small RIAs
Zack Khan says the choice is between single-user assistants and rebuilding workflows across a firm; the sponsored episode offers no client results.
SEC proposes 20% performance fees for RIAs and a wider accredited-investor test
The package also adds CPA and CFA licenses to the accredited-investor pathways and loosens interval-fund redemptions, with 60 days of public comment on each.
Kitces & Carl's 200th episode: how advisors explain a fee when the value is intangible
The hosts trace advice's move from product sales to investment management to goal-focused life planning, and why the newest layer resists a quick fee explanation.
Pontera pitches an AI trust layer as Schwab prepares its Charley agent
The 401(k) software firm says agent-to-agent finance needs a validating intermediary, and its long dispute with Fidelity over credential sharing remains unresolved.
NASAA issues investor advisory on finfluencer pay, red flags and registration
The advisory explains how social media finance promoters are paid and what disclosure and registration rules apply to paid promotion or fee-based advice.
Northwestern Mutual opens a 40-specialist family office platform to its advisors
Advisors pay a retainer for access to 40-plus in-house legal, tax, estate and philanthropy specialists aimed at clients with at least $50 million in net worth.
CD Valet sells advisors $500-a-month access to its CD shoppers
The Seattle Bank affiliate says 150,000 to 200,000 investors compare CD rates on its site each month.
Sen. Blunt Rochester's rental housing bill would replace 27.5-year depreciation with per-unit expensing
Developers of new rental housing could deduct up to $150,000 per unit in year one, or $250,000 for projects that clear affordability tests borrowed from the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.
Ensemble Practice pay study finds advisor cash climbing, equity scarcer
The consultancy's annual survey of more than 170 independent advisory firms pairs 39% profit margins with 3.7% organic growth, a 10-year low.
BNY Pershing folds Wove into Adam Vos's wealth solutions unit
The custodian declines to say how many advisors use the multi-custodial platform it launched at Insite in 2023.
DTCC invests in iCapital and will integrate its alternative investment product with the platform
The two firms will connect DTCC's Alternative Investment Product with iCapital's platform across transaction processing, data exchange, access, administration and reporting.
Betterment Advisor Solutions sets custody platform fees at 0.20% under $10 million
The tiers take effect Jan. 1, drop to 0.12% above $10 million and become negotiable above $100 million.
Ameriprise pays advisors $1,000 or a fee share to send clients to its virtual desk
Employee advisors get a one-time $1,000; independent contractors get a portion of the past year's advisory fee, and both payments require the household to stay 12 months.
A new Journal of Financial Planning paper asks how clients place themselves among 'the wealthy'
The published extract stops before any findings, but the framing gives advisors a testable question about referral maps.
SEC proposes rescinding 2010 pay-to-play rule for investment advisers
The rule, in place since 2010, bars compensated advisory service to government clients for two years after certain political contributions, and many firms responded by banning giving outright.
Kitces research ties client service calendars to faster referral growth
Practices that ask more than once a year report 3.0% referral growth, against 5.4% for those that never ask; service calendar users add 1.1 points.
Bitwise's crypto models rebalance on Vise's engine, alongside the rest of the book
The crypto sleeve now follows the same rebalancing schedule and tax treatment as every other holding, which is the version of digital assets that scales across a book.
A 45-year veteran is selling listening as a credential
The 100,000-advisor shortfall will keep getting answered with transition checks until firms decide the discovery conversation is worth training and screening for.
The 15 million self-employed are the uncovered workers advisers can call
EIG's 76.2 million uncovered workers split into two prospect lists, and only one of them can be dialed directly.
The internship is becoming advisory recruiting's cheapest fit test
Amplified's Externship drew more than 2,800 students this summer, and the firms folding it into their own programs are buying what a resume cannot show.
The fee case built on gross returns is the weakest one
A Journal of Financial Planning paper inventories what planners actually deliver, and that list is a stronger client conversation than any performance comparison.
A goals-based plan pays most when the client ranks the goals
The 2015 Blanchett paper prices the conversation most practices run informally: which goals get funded, and in what order.
FPA wants “financial planner” protected before it has defined the bar
A protected title would flow into every bio page, pitch deck and conference badge where the phrase is used as a claim, tested against standards the association has yet to write.
Consolidation stalls on the calendar and the calculator, not the client
Three studies show advisers chasing household assets without the hours or the numbers to back the pitch clients never hear.
Savvy's new platform has 150 users, no outside clients and no price
For an RIA weighing custodians, the introducing-broker model moves revenue rather than assets, and the terms that would decide the switch stay unpublished until a 2027 onboarding window.
NASAA's fee waiver settles the cheapest line in the budget
The firm-level IARD waiver runs through 2027 and the rep fee holds at $15, leaving the compliance hours that scale with headcount as the real cost of state registration.
Savvy's custody pitch is software over Fidelity's rails
Comparing platforms means pricing the workflow above clearing—and asking what the 90-second number includes.
The Muse Selloff Prices the Part of Advice an App Can Do
Tuesday's tape marked down Schwab, Ameriprise and Raymond James over one consumer app — and the layer it threatens is the layer most practices still bill for.
The rollover memo works best when it says stay put
The CFP Board's rollover framework turns the advisor's built-in fee conflict into a written, client-specific analysis, and the firms that run it at every separation event will convert more of them.
The videos won 80,000 followers; the offer won the clients
Nate Hoskin's educational videos drew 80,000 followers and almost none of the right clients, until a switch to subscription planning fees produced 172 clients and close to $1 million in annual revenue.
Human in the loop means three things. Ask which one.
A vendor can claim the phrase with no expert training behind the model, and the advisor who clicks approve absorbs the risk.
E-delivery saves postage and hands advisors a consent ledger
The SEC's comment window on Regulation E-Delivery has closed with more than 80,000 letters filed, and the two opt-out notices are the practice's real bill.
Half of plan holders still worry: sell the family meeting.
Fidelity's poll of investors 55 and older finds a completed plan buys less peace of mind than the industry assumes, turning the heir conversation into a growth strategy.
Schwab's Q4 connector is where Claude's advisor pitch gets tested
Anthropic's advisor assistant arrives with eleven integration partners and exactly one custodian, and the license fee is the smallest part of what a practice is being asked to buy.