Dan Shaw

In a big week for industry recruiting, Stifel lands practices managing $2.9 billion at Merrill, Merrill recruits a $1.9 billion team from Raymond James and Rockefeller pulls part of a $2.3 billion team from UBS.

Executives at Merrill's parent firm, Bank of America, told analysts in a call that nearly two-thirds of their wealth management clients now have banking relationships with the firm.

The industry rivals are back in court with fresh allegations that Ameriprise falsely warned its former clients that LPL misappropriated their account information.

An industry consultant thinks Edward Jones' latest bid to start a bank is an attempt to add revenue sources as the traditional brokerage business becomes less lucrative.

Like its rival Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo saw a healthy increase in its AUM and wealth revenues before Trump's tariff policies sent investments reeling.

Executives at the Wall Street giant expressed optimism that clients will turn to it more for advice amid economic uncertainty.

Modern Wealth also takes on $1B in AUM through two acquisitions, and LPL hires a chief data, AI officer from JPMorgan.

Evan Becht told a FINRA arbitrator that he has not been able to find another job since JPMorgan's reasons for terminating him became listed on his BrokerCheck page.

States can now adopt a model rule that will prevent brokers from holding themselves out to the public as "advisors" or "advisers."

As the head of the investment solutions group at Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank, Nancy Fahmy ensures the firm's advisors have access to investments they recommend to investors.

The deal, expected to close in the second half of the year, will bring in $16 billion in client assets and 110 advisors.

Meanwhile, former Charles Schwab CEO Walt Bettinger saw a 10% compensation increase for his final year on the job.

Also this week, Raymond James recruits from Morgan Stanley, and Mercer Advisors and EP Wealth Advisors make big M&A deals.

The LPL CEO says Commonwealth advisors have almost nothing to lose and much to gain by joining a firm whose headcount is fast approaching 29,000. (Plus, experts say he'll be writing big checks.)

Michael Bonevento and his team left Ameriprise in 2019 to join LPL Financial. He says too much time has elapsed for him to now be accused of misappropriating client information.

A court of appeals agreed with Commonwealth's contention that a jury should decide if investors were harmed by investment disclosures allegedly withheld from them.

UBS contends the nearly $70 million in punitive damages it has been ordered to pay a wealthy Iowa family are not justified under federal or state law.

Industry experts think LPL will have to work hard to retain Commonwealth advisors who were sold on the idea that they'd be working for a "boutique" firm.

The acquisition will bring LPL as much as $285 billion in AUM and 2,900 advisors when it closes in the second half of the year.

Also this week, Ameriprise CEO James Cracchiolo sees a 12% bump in compensation in 2024 and new LPL CEO Rich Steinmeier also sees a hefty pay bump.