RIAs

According to a survey conducted by TD Ameritrade, RIAs reported a 7% increase.

Carson Wealth Management Group announced Monday it will become an independent RIA in July, but will further expand by added a broker-dealer arm later this year.

To give its 3,000-plus independent advisors an edge, Fidelity Investments introduced the Business Development and Marketing Planning Toolkit, an interactive PDF that advisors, firms and advisor teams can use to better define themselves, identify exactly the type of clients they want to attract and retain and, perhaps most important, ensure their customers know enough about them and their services to provide a meaningful referral to potential new clients.

An uptick in mergers and acquisition among investment advisory firms at the end of last year suggests that the pace will increase, according to a study by Pershing Advisor Solutions, a unit of BNY Mellon. However, there were fewer deals, and they took longer to complete in last year, compared to the peak in 2007.

“Clearly, a lot of the same fundamental, structural changes to the industry continue to drive M&A,” says David DeVoe, managing director of strategic business development for Schwab Advisor Services.

Schwab announced that since it launched Schwab Advisor University in June, over 5,600 RIA employees from more than 2,500 firms participated in its online courses to help improve firm operations.

The BNY Mellon unit is beefing up its global research offerings for its registered investment advisor, broker-dealer and hedge fund customers.

It's not exactly cats and dogs living together, but a new white paper from Sanctuary Wealth Services surmises that independent advisors and wirehouse brokers could definitely learn a lot from each other when it comes to attracting and retaining clients and would do well to learn from each other's mistakes in the future.

Nelson Roberts Investment Advisors this week closed its first RIA acquisition, picking up San Francisco Bay Area-based Sylvan H. Kline Jr. Inc. to bring its total assets under management to more than $275 million.

Dynasty Financial has an ambitious plan to expand its advisor network to between 100 and 150 top-tier RIAs with total assets under management of around $50 billion over the next five years.