Adults learn differently than children or even college students, something most undergraduate executive education programs know and practice. However, financial services, especially the 401(k) industry, have yet to learn these lessons. Defined contribution plan sponsors and participants are uniquely challenged. Plan administrators step into their roles with little or no training to navigate ERISA, which…

The US inflation rate rose on average in March with the personal consumption expenditure price index and the core PCE price index each up 0.3%. Annual inflation remains close to 3% rather than the Fed's target of 2%. Those numbers, along with near-record low unemployment, have dampened expectations of when the Fed might cut rates….

For an insurance logician, the Department of Labor framework Retirement Insurance Rulein which future recommendations made to retirement savers are viewed almost exclusively through the lens of investment advice, is logically problematic. The regulatory confusion of “wealth/financial” with “investment” dates back to 1987, and essentially disadvantages the insurance industry (liability minimization). It also hurts the…

I have been a financial executive for about 25 years now. I started at American Century Retirement Planning Services. Shortly after I started, JPMorgan Chase bought it and I created the divisional accounting department there. I have held other roles at various companies in consumer goods retail, manufacturing and packaging. I came to Prime Capital…

Goldman Sachs has no ambitions to launch its own RIA business, President and CEO John Waldron told attendees at the firm's inaugural RIA Professional Investor Forum in New York City on May 9 and 10. It also does not aspire to replace more widely used custody platforms, such as Schwab or Fidelity. Instead, the bank…

CI Financial has spun off its US wealth management business, Corient, with separate boards and management, and day-to-day Corient operations are run from its headquarters in Miami. Debts from CI's M&A moves in the US space are the only thing that still connects the two entities. But the Toronto-based asset and wealth manager will close…

A pair of Merrill Lynch advisors, Eric Gray and Lance Polverini, have joined JP Morgan Wealth Management in Los Angeles. The Gray-Polverini team at Merrill Private Wealth Management specializes in very high net worth clients and manages approximately $28 billion in assets, generating approximately $10 million. Prior to the switch, they had worked for Merrill…

Over 9,000 advisors switched firms in 2023, marking a 7% increase from a year ago.* While this movement is prevalent across all industry channels, it is particularly pronounced within the RIA world and represents a growing trend which is a kind of dichotomy. Namely, RIA Severance: Those advisors employed by an independent firm who leave…

A high-stakes trade in the riskiest corner of a $1.3 trillion credit market is luring some of the world's most conservative investors, raising concerns that in their aggressive hunt for higher yields they could cut some trap. Pension plans and insurers have piled into funds that invest in equity tranches of collateralized debt obligations in…

While money managers made deals, talked about AI and hung on Elon Musk's every word at this week's top business conference in Beverly Hills, a passionate debate on diversity was taking place behind closed doors. In a small side room, about 40 people, including some of Wall Street's top black executives, crowded around a rectangular…