Charles Paikert

AMG Wealth Partners has taken a minority stake in Tarrytown, N.Y.-based Clarfeld Financial Advisors, a $4 billion firm with a London office that specializes in serving wealthy U. S. citizens living abroad. The investment is the second since the division was formed two years ago as a subsidiary of AMG, which has more than $470 billion in assets.

While the nation's largest independent broker-dealer says it has no “imminent” plans to own a bank, it now can if it wants to -- thanks to the announcement of a stock distribution by two of the firm’s original private-equity investors.

Raymond James is ramping up its pitch to attract independent advisors by opening up access to alternative investments.

The latest Focus catch is a big one: Southfield, Mich.-based Telemus Capital Partners, which provides investment management, financial planning, retirement and estate planning, life insurance and tax consulting to nearly 600 clients across the country. The firm has more than $2.2 billion in client assets.

Membership in these organizations is by invitation only -- but the top advisor execs who belong say the select clubs offer a big payoff. Here's how they work.

Investing directly in private companies is becoming increasingly popular with wealthy families.

LPL Financial Holdings reported the strongest quarter in the company’s nearly three years as a public company, with net revenues topping $1 billion for the first time. LPL’s board of directors also announced the company’s quarterly dividend would be raised 40% to 19 cents per share.

Questions about the future of online advice have intensified since Bloomberg LP, the multibillion-dollar data, information and media giant, said last week that it was shutting down its own online wealth management offering, BloombergBlack.

A 33-year financial services industry veteran from Southern California has been elected to serve as 2014 Chair-elect of the CFP Board of Standards’ Board of Directors.

“We see an opportunity to have a national RIA multifamily office brand with the Forbes name,” Scott Gregorchuk, chief executive of Forbes Family Trust tells Financial Planning. “We are surgically targeting the right advisors and investment advisory firms to join our effort.”

Increased demand for due diligence on hedge funds -- if not for the funds themselves -- may be the initial impact of the SEC's recent ruling lifting an 80-year-old ban on advertising for private offerings.

Securities America has ramped up the fierce competition for independent advisors, launching a new RIA targeting advisors with between $50 million and $250 million assets under management.

Wealth management is “significantly behind” other industries in adopting emerging mobile technology to interact with clients, according to Darrin Courtney, research director for Boston-based CEB TowerGroup. How can advisors change this trend?

Over the past decade, firms offering clients their own investment products increasingly lost ground to those recommending an open architecture array of investment options from outside managers, but there has been a recent resurgence in proprietary management among wealth managers.

Sanctuary Wealth Services, a San Francisco-based platform provider and services support firm for wealth managers, has snagged a Morgan Stanley breakaway team specializing in proprietary asset management.

Three new reports suggest that the wealth management industry still needs improvement — and hint at a slowdown after recent growth.

A NAPFA membership rule change has provoked criticism for the way the decision was reached and communicated.

While a new report on multifamily offices finds big growth industrywide -- nearly 10% asset growth in 2011, the last year cited -- family office executives said a "primary growth constraint" was the ability to hire dedicated business development professionals.

Should financial advisors leave their smaller accounts behind when they switch firms?

Industry veteran Steve Dunlap, who previously held two top jobs at Bank of New York Mellon, is joining Cetera Financial Group as executive vice president, wealth management.