By Mindy Diamond – Day 2 at MSUM14 proved that the momentum we are sensing around independence for financial advisors is real, sustainable and will likely accelerate based on a burgeoning number of options available and a new breed of young investors ready to fuel them.
By Mindy Diamond – The MarketCounsel Summit kicked off with the shot heard ‘round the financial advisor world. Rarely do you find such a fortune of financial wisdom gathered together in one place.
By Mindy Diamond – It started as a trickle just after 2008 when as a whole wirehouse advisors became disenchanted with their firms and exceedingly mistrustful of the folks who ran them. Teams of advisors like The LLBH group, formerly of Merrill Lynch in Westport, CT and The Nick Bapis Group, formerly of Morgan Stanley, chose to forego the outsized transition checks being offered them from competitor organizations and go some version of independent with firms like Focus Financial Partners and HighTower Advisors, respectively.
Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Diana Britton, WealthManagement.com – Since Brian Hamburger started MarketCounsel in 2000, over 1,500 RIA firms have crossed his path.
By Brooke Southall, RIABiz – Fusion Family Wealth LLC has a why-didn’t-I-think-of-that strategy for building its business that had one potential weak underpinning, now seemingly corrected. The New York City- and Long Island-based RIA that broke away from UBS on Friday expects to have about $900 million of assets under management when the dust settles after re-materializing as a legally fiduciary advisor.
Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Lisa Shidler, RIABiz – BNY Mellon and Pershing are forming a more perfect union on behalf of big-time RIAs whose clients are rich enough that they don’t want to go through the wringer to borrow cash. Having the bank and brokerage side linked up together gives Pershing a serious leg up on the other custodians, Mindy Diamond, chief execuitve of Diamond Consultants, says.
Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Joyce Hanson, ThinkAdvisor – Recruitment momentum in the registered investment advisor (RIA) and regional space should jump higher in 2013 after a slow 2012, as advisors in search of independence are now sufficiently prepared to make a move, recruiter Diamond Consultants reported Wednesday.
By Mindy Diamond, WealthManagement.com – Mitch, a 25-year wirehouse veteran with $500 million in client assets in the Midwest, began considering his options for a move in 2008. He was tired of the bad press about his firm and other wirehouses and decided he was financially prepared to forgo a 300 percent incentive check; he liked the idea of independence. On his own, Mitch began doing due diligence with several custodians to explore partnering with one of their existing RIAs. He had no interest in being distracted from his clients to set up his own firm; he wanted to stay focused on growth. But because of differences over economics, infrastructure, culture, or business mix, none of the firms he talked to seemed the right fit. He also realized he preferred to create his own brand. He then started talking about creating his own firm, but outsourcing the back- and middle- office work like technology, compliance and other operational functions to a third-party platform or service provider.
