Practice management

UBS chief data and analytics officer Joe Cordeira says AI won't replace advisors. But it can help them by providing little nudges to do everything from rebalancing a portfolio to wishing a client happy birthday.

One of the most consequential M&A deals in years leads this roundup of the many ways big independent firms grew in 2025 and how they plan to continue growing in 2026.

Advisors who reframed strategic decisions shifted investor perceptions of identical financial results, research shows; here's what that means for retirement planning.

With the rapid growth of the RIA industry, large wealth managers are increasingly finding ways to make money by supporting independent advisory practices.

Savant Wealth Management, Moneta Group Investment Advisors and EP Wealth Advisors lead a group of fee-only firms with headcounts well above their peers.

Mindy Neira found that embracing her passions helped build a niche that fulfills her.

Experts say RIA owners often resist making themselves replaceable. But they'll have to choose between an internal or external deal someday.

With New Year's resolutions on the rise, financial advisors are using the seasonal focus on money goals to engage clients and spark action.

This year the top three firms in FP's exclusive study of RIAs that do not do any commission business manage nearly $120 billion combined.

Firms might not be able to untangle the web's interconnected services, but they can think ahead and duplicate servers and data to prepare for the next outage.

At a time when private equity ownership is causing clashes between independent broker-dealers and some of their largest advisory teams, Private Advisor Group found another option.

Every independent RIA has unique access to one niche: the prospects in their own ZIP code. Smart advisors can turn that information into a community-based customer pool.

The printable PDF includes rankings based on the firms' AUM as well as statistics on each firm's employees, client accounts and financial advisors.

Fiduciary laws trace their roots to ancient times, but the terms of the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the Investment Advisers Act are still evolving today.

The implications to taxes, hiring and the very legacy of a financial advisor's career demand much more formal documentation than most RIAs have undertaken, experts say.

A growing number of RIAs are offering one-time, flat-fee advisory services as part of a broader embrace of advice-only planning. But not all advisors are sold.

One-third of financial advisors say balancing personalization with growth is the hardest trade-off for them to manage. Doing so successfully means making hard choices about what's most important for clients and the business.

Financial therapist Rahkim Sabree wove his personal experiences into a detailed manual on a problem he and others say is often glossed over by the industry.

Less than a third of firms have a formal, documented plan in place, according to this month's Financial Advisor Confidence Outlook survey. Experts say this is a dangerous state of affairs.

The higher standard deduction since 2017 has dramatically reduced itemization. But the new law provides incentive for teachers to consider whether that's feasible.