Ann Marsh

In the RIA space, rapid consolidation is driving firms to merge, acquire and seek larger partners. In 10 to 20 years, many predict a series of giant $100 billion-AUM firms will emerge to dominate the market. So what does the future hold for smaller firms?

Brinton Eaton, a Madison, N.J., based wealth manager with $700 million in assets under management, has joined Chicago-based Mariner Wealth Advisors, bringing the latter’s AUM to $6.3 billion.

With RIA balance sheets healthier, banks once again are taking an interest in RIAs, which are growing as much as 50% more rapidly than wirehouses.

To foster the evolution of financial planning as a widely accepted and understood profession, NAPFA announced that, starting Jan. 1, it will only accept the CFP designation for anyone applying to become NAPFA-registered planners

“[A] segment of wealth managers appear to live in denial, clinging to investment methodologies that have patently failed twice over the past decade and are likely to fall short again,” the authors of a white paper accompanying the survey results wrote.

The SEC has accused a Chicago advisor and his firm of defrauding clients and others by promising them a private equity fund the firm managed would “beat the market."

These record levels are expected to continue through the end of the year as individuals and their advisors seek to meet charitable giving priorities while also navigating the uncertain outlook for taxes given the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts at year’s end, according to Schwab.

To help its advisors grow their businesses, Cetera Financial Group is bringing on a fleet of new advisory and product sales consultants. The added manpower is intended to give each consultant and sales manager more time to provide in-person and virtual support to advisors as the firm re-engineers its advisor support regions, according to Cetera.

Across the asset class of emerging market debt, upgrades are far outpacing downgrades. As a result, more than 50% of emerging market fixed income investments have become investment grade, says Luz Padilla, senior portfolio manager of the emerging markets fixed income strategy at DoubleLine Capital in Los Angeles.

Part of the steady uptick in investment in emerging market fixed income is due to the appearance of new players from the emerging markets themselves.

There are a host of reasons why emerging market debt has been looking sweeter to investors.

Want to have deeper conversations with your clients? Start talking about philanthropy, says one expert.

Young and up-and-coming planner Winnie Sun is a passionate advocate for the role that social media can play in attracting Generation Y clients. But recently a routine LinkedIn inquiry she made yielded a benefit that surprised even her: a huge client prospect who she thinks she never could have met otherwise

Three years ago, Shannon Ryan of Manhattan Beach, Calif., left a position training and overseeing advisors with Ameriprise to return to full-time planning herself. The veteran of a successful planning practice years earlier on the East Coast, Ryan realized that her neighbors in California knew her mainly as the mother to two young daughters.

Some planners join boards. Others volunteer for local causes. Sun Group Wealth Partners in Irvine, Calif., decided to build bridges with its community by funding memberships for about 1,000 families of kids with special needs like autism to a unique educational museum called Pretend City.

In the wake of a settlement of a patent infringement lawsuit involving two major financial planning software products, both sides are proclaiming victory.

Level Four Group, a Plano, Texas, based advisory firm with close to $1 billion in assets under management has moved from Lincoln Financial to LPL in a bid to grow by using the LPL platform and name to increase its stable of advisors.

PIEtech, Inc., maker of the popular planning software product MoneyGuidePro, has settled a patent infringement lawsuit brought against it and UBS Financial Services by its competitor, Wealthcare Capital Management.

Expect more financial regulatory changes, Schwab executives suggested Thursday -- and be wary of a new recession if Congress and the new administration don’t take steps to keep the country from going all the way over the so-called fiscal cliff

Approximately 300 advisors affiliated with independent broker-dealer Symetra Investment Services, based in Bellevue, Wash., now have access to a Envestnet's online tools, including aggregated reporting capabilities.