RIAs

Just as the cobbler's children go without shoes, two-thirds of independent advisors ignore succession planning. Such advisors could fall into an “annuity trap,” watching the value of their business degrade as they near the exit from their practice.

LPL Financial has added well-known wealth management firm MACRO Consulting of Parisippany, N.J., with $650 million in AUM and five advisors, who left independent broker dealer SII Investments for its larger rival.

If there is a constant in the investment advisory landscape, it’s change. And few things are changing faster than the independent sphere.

Evercore Partners Inc., the advisory firm founded by Roger Altman, agreed to purchase Mt. Eden Investment Advisors LLC, a San Francisco-based wealth manager with $645 million in client assets.

Legacy Wealth Planning announced Wednesday that it hired Mark Elston and his team of financial advisors.

The regulatory overhaul put in place by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 has dramatically reshaped the compliance landscape for investment advisors, with more small firms moving to oversight at the state level, while many large, private fund advisors now find themselves under the purview of the SEC, according to a new survey of advisors.

“Advisors have been told that it’s the name of the firm on the business card that’s important to clients,” he said, “so their clients won’t follow them if they go independent. We have found that it’s the advisor-client relationship that’s important, not necessarily the name of the firm.

TD Ameritrade Institutional drew a record 441 breakaway brokers to its platform for independent registered investment advisors in fiscal 2012, a 27% increase from a year earlier.

Among the big deals this week: First Allied buys Legend from Waddell & Reed to form a firm with $28 billion under management.

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management vice chairman Paul Hatch has said publicly that these reps-as-portfolio-manager programs are "a permanent change."