Industry

LPL also drew from Osaic again, RIA aggregators made some big M&A deals and Merrill rehired an executive who left to go to Citi more than six years ago.

While not denying the benefits of PE backing, a subset of RIAs and wealth managers remain determined to go it alone.

Even though some firms have been able to command top dollar selling themselves to large aggregators, plenty of variables are still helping to hold purchase prices in check.

On Monday, Marc Turansky began as head of investment advisory, a newly created role at Citi, which continues its quest to become the largest wealth manager in the world.

The fast-moving RIA aggregator has been undergoing an internal reorganization since 2023 in a bid to consolidate the many firms it has scooped up over the years.

Robert Daly was part of a star team that left Morgan Stanley in 2023 to join First Republic and has since been barred from the industry.

Focus Financial Partners also merges two of its RIAs and Captrust buys up two practices together managing nearly $2 billion.

Like any ranking, the list from SmartAsset comes with some caveats. But these firms are catering to a lot of high net worth and ultrahigh net worth clients.

A FINRA arbitration panel sided with a claimant who contended Wells and one of its advisors should have recognized telltale signs of elder fraud when their client decided to give away tens of thousands of shares of Aflac stock.

From trending independence to the rise in AI in wealth management, these stories and series dove deep on issues of utmost importance to financial advisors in 2024.