Barbara Herman Quoted – By Diana Britton, WealthManagement.com – While LPL Financial has custodied assets for registered investment advisors since 2008, it was largely to support the fledgling hybrid advisory business of its registered reps. But as it has across the industry, that advisory business has grown fast.
By Wendy Leung, ThinkAdvisor – As the interest in attaining freedom, flexibility and control continues to surge among advisors, new independent models are being born at a rapid pace to accommodate them, providing more choice than ever before.
Louis Diamond Quoted – By Ian Wenik, Citywire – Goldman Sachs, RIA custodian? Industry experts told Citywire that this might be the thinking underlying the financial services goliath’s latest acquisition: Folio Financial, an online broker and custodian in McLean, Va. Financial terms of the transaction, which Folio revealed on Thursday, were not disclosed.
Louis Diamond Quoted – By Oisin Breen, RIABiz – Goldman Sachs took another big step into the RIA business with the acquisition of custodian Folio Institutional. The New York giant revealed its acquisition of Folio Financial Inc. today (May 14), with an expected close in the third quarter this year — and the latest overt move by Goldman CEO David Solomon to make his company much more like Fidelity Investments or Charles Schwab & Co.
Louis Diamond Quoted – By Brooke Southall, RIABiz – LPL Financial is going to zig to Charles Schwab & Co’s zag on zero commissions — by matching the move–but only in its RIA custody unit. The Fort Mill, S.C., broker-dealer is “likely…doing something to address” Schwab’s price cut, said Dan Arnold, CEO of LPL Financial in response to a direct question on the matter this week from Alex Blostein, the Goldman Sachs research analyst who covers the big broker-dealer.
By Louis Diamond, Citywire – Charles Schwab’s announcement on Tuesday to eliminate trading fees on stocks, ETFs, and options sent waves through the media and soon after pushed competitors TD Ameritrade and E*TRADE to follow suit. The industry still awaits news on the other two largest RIA custodians – Pershing Advisor Solutions and Fidelity Custody & Clearing Services – and how they will respond to Schwab’s strategy. Yet many in the wealth management space – regardless of channel affiliation – are left wondering what this really means for their businesses.
