In early January, I wrote of the promise I saw in the year ahead, albeit noting at the time that “Hope is hard.”
Reflecting on the outlook from that first week of January, optimism was a triumph of hope over experience. But today’s reality shows us that a positive perspective on that day was not in fact misplaced.
To name just a few of the green shoots that have bloomed, the battle against Covid-19 in the U.S. has turned, the vaccine regime has been an exhibit in operational efficiency and of particular importance to the financial advice community, the economy has begun to recover.
For the passive observer, the most immediate evidence of the economic turn lies in the charts of the various indexes, but for our community, look at what’s happening in the earnings of wirehouses, publicly held advice firms and the expectations at megabanks.
UBS Financial Services Inc. reported robust results in the latest quarter, including net new fee-generating assets of $17.2 billion.
LPL Financial added 385 advisers and disclosed more than $950 billion in total assets, a new high.
And JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon cited his expectation that a strong economy will extend into 2023; more importantly, he sees a return to normalcy, setting the expectation for one-half of employees rotating through offices by July.
That sort of return gives cause to exhale and enjoy the spring.
The advisors on the move include two brothers leading a family practice in Connecticut, and a husband-and-wife tandem working with business owners in the West Coast.
Business owners and their heirs may be making assumptions instead of having conversations, creating challenges for succession planning, according to new research.
The Kansas-based mega-RIA is giving clients access to dedicated care coaches as new surveys show caregiving duties are straining Americans' finances.
Aspen's affiliated RIAs now manage $15 billion after the New York-based platform added Kalamazoo-based CWS Financial Advisors.
The Chicago-based mega-RIA's latest additions, spanning six office locations and over 40 team members, pushes its W-2 platform assets to roughly $35 billion.
Dan Biagini of American Equity says the steady decline of pensions, longer lifespans and a reset in interest rates are rewriting how advisors build retirement income
Direct indexing is on pace to outgrow ETFs and mutual funds. Northern Trust's Ken Lassner explains why the advisors who get it wish they had started sooner.
