Wealth management

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.

The San Francisco company tells investors to think ahead to 2011 taxes, as filing deadline has just passed.

SEI finds that talking about money may still be taboo.

The Michael Jackson Estate has featured fireworks since very shortly after Michael died on June 25, 2009. His mother, Katherine Jackson, was not happy about non-family members, including attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain, being named as executors of his estate. So she hired lawyers and challenged the executors in probate court. They fought … and fought … and fought.

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.

Investors and advisors are concerned about IRAs and Ed Slott provides the answers.

Despite the first quarter being a slower time for charitable giving, Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund announced on Thursday that it had its strongest first quarter in its 20-year history.

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.

Motivating staff and building relationships lead to success