Ann Marsh

VisionPoint Advisory Group is looking to use the giant independent broker-dealer as a base to expand by recruiting more advisors.

Atlanta Capital and PFM say they will offer more concierge services to families with less than $20 million in AUM.

The two big wirehouses back the CFP Board’s move to strip out its 'fee-only listings.

Two planners who are suing the CFP Board amended their complaint to seek unspecified damages in addition to earlier claims seeking an admission of fault from the board as well as the quashing of a public sanction for calling their practice fee-only.

Significantly altered results now appear when users search for fee-only advisors.

The CFP Board extended a broad amnesty to hundreds of advisors who had been breaking its rules by calling themselves fee-only on the board’s website. The surprise move prompted calls for the board to reconsider and possibly rescind recent sanctions of other CFP holders for similar transgressions.

The CFP Board’s strategy of punishing some certificate holders over compensation disclosure issues in what critics charge is an arbitrary manner threatens the future of the CFP designation, according to one of the early leaders of the board who also chaired its disciplinary commission.

Exclusive: Without any notice, ‘fee-only’ is replaced with ‘none provided’ on CFP holders’ profiles.

Exclusive: Widespread abuse of the term raises question of a disciplinary double-standard.

At a time when recruiting is down across the independent broker-dealer space, Cetera Financial Group has added 247 net new advisors nationwide between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2013.

Exclusive: Confusion over compensation disclosure again cited; board insists process is 'consistent, fair, credible.'

Former CFP Board Chairman Alan Goldfarb was the first CFP holder ever to be publicly sanctioned for a compensation disclosure violation, the board has confirmed – despite its assertion that he was not treated differently than other CFP holders.

A lawsuit brought by husband-and-wife planners in Florida against the CFP Board has brought the federal court system into the debate over “fee-only” labeling and consequences – a topic that the industry has been struggling to define.

Raymond James picked up a $500 Million team from Morgan Stanley and a Jefferies advisor with $100 million in assets.

Amid growing industry debate over compensation disclosure, the FPA has changed the compensation disclosure options on its website.

Strategic marketing customized for female clients helped one longtime planner build her own practice up to $100 million in AUM.

LPL is shuttering NestWise, the once-hyped unit that was launched just last year to serve less affluent customers, and has laid off 40 NestWise employees.

To do so, the country’s largest independent broker dealer expects to have a portal up and running, probably under the name AdvisorHarmony, as early as next year that will allow advisors to sift through potential partners on their own.

John Hancock Financial Network has rebranded under the name Signator Investors, as a sign to advisors of its commitment to grow the advisory side of its business.

A spike in the proportion of RIA-to-RIA deals in the first half of this year may signify that the advisory field is starting to come into its own.