Practice management

The emotionally and financially taxing process of a separation demands careful planning, multifaceted form-filing to the IRS and, probably, an advisor for each spouse.

CEO Ted Pick said nearly half of net new assets Morgan Stanley brought in last year landed in fee-generating accounts — and that's right where he wants them.

Top deals from Q4 include Wealth Enhancement Group's deal with Levy Wealth Management Group and Cetera's bid for Concourse Financial Group Securities.

The regional giant reported $2.2 trillion in client assets last year, despite seeing its net new flows decline.

The Pentagon agreed to create streamlined processes for those discharged under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to apply for new military records.

A Tax Court ruling that limited partners in an investment manager must pay Uncle Sam could cause some restructuring across the industry, an expert said.

Regulators have handed down more than $3 billion in penalties over employees' alleged failures to record business-related messages sent on services like WhatsApp.

Regulators accused the online brokerage of failing to accurately report trades, comply with short selling rules and maintain proper books and records, among other things.

Lawsuits before the Supreme Court and in lower federal courts across the country could further reduce enforcement powers at the IRS and the SEC this year.

The firm says a summer intern who was turned down for a full-time position sent harassing messages that led it to close its Atlanta office for two days in January.

When he's not preparing to climb the world's highest mountains and run the major marathons, Joe McQuaid, managing director of platform solutions and advisor experience, ensures Concurrent Investment Advisors' tech stack has stamina.

The mega bank says more than half of its roughly 300,000 are already back in the office every day of the work week.

The asset management giant called out the method of offsetting capital gains in this year's edition of its oft-cited study tracking the "alpha" of financial planning.

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

The most precipitous drop of any category was in asset allocation, as advisors signaled they would be less aggressive with investments in the new year.

Edward Jones stood accused of not properly supervising advisors who were charging clients commissions for mutual funds and then moving the fund shares over to fee-generating accounts.

A recent Smarsh survey found that although 79% of finserv firms view AI as critical to the sector's future and 81% of large firms feel pressured to adopt AI to stay competitive, only 32% have formal AI governance programs in place.

Industry experts say the new team of 25 investment specialists seems designed to tackle the more esoteric aspects of working with wealthy clients and leave asset gathering and relationship management to advisors.

If there's one thing we should have learned by now, it's that the constant state of change in our industry is driven by advances in technology.

But even as many firms' tech budgets are likely to increase, experts say carefully spending that money to increase efficiency will be paramount to maintaining a nimble tech stack.