Career advancement

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.

The answer depends first and foremost on how much time financial advisors have for an emotionally and technically challenging process, experts said.

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

Cetera also names the next president of its wealth management division and Corient scoops up a $7.9 billion RIA in Maine.

Independent firms are going beyond traditional wirehouse compensation packages to promote collective partnership and reward incoming teams.

The standard-setting group is mulling increasing continuing education requirements and requiring that CFP aspirants have certain types of financial planning-related experiences, among other changes.

Homrich Berg also acquires a $6.4 billion RIA and Hightower takes a stake in an $800 million advisory practice.

A 20-plus-year veteran replaces Manish Dave, who left the post in October.

Raymond James and Merrill also announce recruiting deals, while LPL hires a head of cybersecurity from PayPal.

Oden, head of U.S. wealth, private banking, asset management and premier banking at HSBC, was one of the first in the industry to build an online wealth management platform.