RIA aggregator Focus Financial Partners has facilitated a merger between two of its partner firms, as it continues to combine its broad ecosystem of companies in a small number of its existing units. Colony Group, a $21.1 billion RIA led by CEO Michael Nathanson, is one of those entities and will join GW & Wade,…

Growth is not something that happens by chance. It is the result of only the right combination of vision, strategic planning, determination and the ability to act on each. Brett Bernstein is one such advisor who, just a few years after becoming a licensed broker at Merrill, realized he wanted more freedom in how he…

The leading professors at pro bono law clinics, which help retail investors pursue small-money claims, hope a summit sponsored by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will inspire other universities to set up pro bono law clinics. theirs. The SEC is holding its annual Investor Advocacy Clinic Summit this morning, in which students and professors…

The wealth management industry today is very different from what many independent financial advisors have become accustomed to over the past decade. From 2011 to 2021, the number of registered investment advisers increased from 10,511 to 14,806 firms, according to data from the US Securities and Exchange Commission. collected by the Association of Investment Advisers…

Since the Great Financial Crisis, until recently, the “growth” of a fee-based registered investment advisory firm was facilitated by years of ever-rising capital markets and an equally long period of near-zero interest rates. VNRs can be “raised” by doing almost nothing. Most wealth management executives are not happy with this. They understand that growth –…

(Bloomberg) — Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill arm. and the brokerage unit of Wells Fargo & Co. are offering access to ETFs that invest directly in Bitcoin, highlighting the growing acceptance of the products by major firms. The banks are offering the approved ETFs to some wealth management clients with brokerage accounts who seek the…

Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley will retire by the end of 2024. According to the firm, Vanguard's Board of Directors is already looking for a successor to Buckley's tenure as head of Vanguard. Connected: Vanguard's Buckley: We can offer PAS to third-party advisors Meanwhile, Chief Investment Officer Greg Davis is being named president in an expansion…

After just under two years with LPL Financial, Kabir Sethi, managing director and chief product officer, will leave the independent broker/dealer at the end of March, according to a public filing. The firm cited an “organizational reorganization of certain business functions” for the departure. “We have no plans to replace the role as responsibilities have…

(Bloomberg Law) — The IRS said it expects to collect hundreds of millions of dollars from high-income people who have not filed federal income tax returns under a new initiative in the agency's fight to collect money owed by wealthy taxpayers. The agency is using letters to target 125,000 cases of taxpayers with incomes of…

LPL Financial has recruited a team of advisors with $515 million in advisory assets in Fort Wayne, Ind. The team, led by US Navy veteran Seth Marshall, has returned to LPL after about a decade at other firms, most recently PNC Private Bank Besim. Endeavor Wealth Strategies will be affiliated with Exemplar Financial Network, an…