Franklin Resources’ unit Fiduciary Trust Co. International is acquiring RIA Athena Capital Advisors, which has assets under management of about $6 billion.
Jan. 7
Envestnet and Dynasty Financial Partners are launching Advisor Services Exchange. Envestnet acquires a minority stake in Dynasty. Fidelity rolls out full-service health savings accounts for clients of RIAs, broker-dealers and banks that custody assets with it.
Jan. 9
Industry News
A Schwab SEC filing refers to a second Justice Department probe into possible antitrust issues with its TD Ameritrade purchase; Fidelity rolls out real-time fractional shares of stocks and ETFs.
Jan. 29
Advisor Group completes its purchase of Ladenburg Thalmann’s broker-dealers. The combined entity has some 11,000 independent financial advisors, $450 billion in client assets and nine broker-dealers. The enterprise value of the transaction was estimated to be $1.3 billion when plans for the deal were made public in November 2019.
Feb. 14
Morgan Stanley says it is acquiring brokerage firm E-Trade for $13 billion, creating a firm that could have over $3 trillion in client assets; E-Trade has about $360 billion of assets.
Feb. 20
Schwab plans to buy Wasmer, Schroeder & Co., which manages some $10.5 billion in fixed income separately managed accounts.
Feb. 25
Dynasty Financial Partners is working with National Advisors Trust to offer trust services to its advisors.
Feb. 28
BNY Mellon Pershing says Mark Tibergien, head of the RIA custody business, will retire in late May. He will be succeeded by Benjamin Harrison.
March 3
Popular blogger and advisor Michael Kitces says he is joining Buckingham Wealth Partners, along with CPA/tax nerd Jeff Levine. “We are excited to see Buckingham make such important hires … [and] position its business as a destination for clients seeking outstanding fiduciary advice,” says Rudy Adolf, founder, CEO and chairman of Focus Financial Partners — which includes Buckingham.
March 12
The Justice Department reportedly approves Morgan Stanley’s purchase of E-Trade.
March 27
Merrill executives say some 700 of the unit’s advisor trainees have been given temporary assignments elsewhere in the bank to work on small-business loans and other projects, and its wealth unit has put further trainee hiring “on hold” due to the work-from-home situation.
April 16
Online broker Motif Investing, which offers advisors and investors build-your-own portfolio platforms, says it will close its doors. Accounts are being transferred to Folio Investing.
April 18
Financial Resources Group and Gladstone Wealth Group will merge, creating the largest firm affiliated with LPL Financial’s corporate RIA — with some 670 advisors and $24 billion in assets.
April 25
Schwab strikes deal to buy Motif’s technology and intellectual property.
May 7
Advisor Group plans to merge three former Ladenburg Thalmann BDs into Securities America by year-end.
May 11
Goldman Sachs says it plans to buy fintech platform and custodian Folio Financial for an undisclosed amount.
May 14
Schwab and TD Ameritrade release a supplement to their joint prospectus/proxy to help resolve eight lawsuits concerning an “incomplete and misleading registration statement.”
May 15
Schwab wraps us its $1.6 billion purchase of USAA Investment Management’s client assets, which total about $80 billion owned by 1 million investors.
May 26
Schwab says it will launch a program to let advisors help clients manage investments in HSAs.
June 3
The Justice Department approves Schwab’s purchase of TD Ameritrade, as do the majority of both firms’ shareholders.
June 4
Schwab Stock Slices is introduced to let DIY investors buy partial shares of a single stock or up to 10 stocks at once with no commissions.
June 9
Platform provider Orion Advisor Solutions says it is merging with investment manager Brinker Capital to form a firm with some $40 billion in managed assets. The new entity will operate as both a technology firm and turnkey asset management program (or TAMP) business, according to Orion CEO Eric Clarke and Brinker CEO Noreen Beaman.
June 28
M&T Bank of Buffalo says it will move its $20 billion wealth business onto LPL’s platform by mid-2021, the largest of some 800 banks and credit unions to join LPL to date. The M&T business includes about 170 advisors.
June 29
Advisors working at wholly owned offices of RIA Carson Wealth, part of Carson Group and led by Ron Carson, must have a certified financial planner designation or similar professional credential within five years of joining it, according to an announcement.
July 6
Dani Fava, head of innovation for TD Ameritrade Institutional, departs and joins Envestnet one week later.
July 15
In its third deal of the year, Hightower Advisors buys part of Frontier Investment Management, a Dallas-based wealth advisory firm with nine offices and $3.3 billion in assets under management. MoneyGuide and Envestnet Analytics are providing free plan analytics to clients of MoneyGuide with planning usage, key metrics and update patterns. Orion Advisor Solutions unveils a new Orion Client Portal, which is integrated with Apex Clearing’s digital custody and clearing engine.
July 28
Skip Schweiss, TD Ameritrade Institutional’s managing director of Retirement Plan Solutions and Advisor Advocacy, leaves the firm. LPL Financial officially launches its employee advisor channel for those who want to own their book of business and be W2 staff with payouts of about 50% to 70% of revenues. The model is tied to its purchase of Allen & Company in 2019. Carson Group is donating $500,000 to the Association of African American Financial Advisors Foundation to support initiatives at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and help more African American students “forge successful careers” in the financial planning sector, says the firm.
Aug. 5
Schwab says that TD Ameritrade’s thinkorswim and thinkpipes trading platforms and tools will be part of what it offers clients of RIAs and other investors following the acquisition, set to wrap up by year-end.
Aug. 6
LPL CEO Dan Arnold says the firm plans to spend $1 billion a year to help advisors compete during the pandemic and afterward, as client expectations rise in response to how today’s technology giants (such as Amazon, Netflix and eBay) do business. Schwab rolls out a free self-guided digital financial planning tool for investors and a financial planning hub. Schwab says it now offers all clients free digital financial plans to help them move toward their retirement goals.
Aug. 20
Wells Fargo starts its first round of job cuts.
Aug. 21
Fidelity Institutional launches a fully digital fixed income trading solution for advisors called Bond Beacon.
Aug. 23
Envestnet and Yodlee software face a lawsuit over how Yodlee collects, uses and secures consumer data.
Aug. 25
Focus Financial Partners says it is acquiring InterOcean, a $2.5 billion Chicago-based RIA.
Aug. 28
RIA Creative Planning buys TrueWealth Management, a $1.6 billion wealth firm in Atlanta, its largest acquisition to date; the deal is its eighth purchase of the year and comes seven months after it sold a minority stake to General Atlantic.
Sept. 1
Hearsay Systems’ Clara Shih has passed the CEO baton to Mike Boese. Shih — who started the tech firm focused on the use of compliant messaging by financial services firms in 2009 with Steve Garrity — will stay on the board of directors and serve as executive chairperson.
Sept. 2
Custodians Schwab and Fidelity Institutional join the Orion Portfolio Solutions turnkey asset management platform.
Sept. 3
Citigroup says Jane Fraser will be its next CEO, making her the first woman to lead a large Wall Street bank. She will take the reins from current Chief Executive Michael Corbat in February 2021. “The glass ceiling in banking maybe is finally cracking,” says CNBC’s Jim Cramer on “Squawk on the Street.” “This is revolutionary, and we can’t deny it.”
Sept. 10
Raymond James trims nearly 4% of its global workforce of about 13,900, or roughly 500 positions. Most of the job cuts affect those in corporate roles across the U.S. and abroad. “Among the most difficult choices I have made [this year] … is the decision that was shared with affected associates this morning — that we are eliminating their jobs as part of overall cost controls,” according to Chairman and CEO Paul Reilly.
Sept. 15
The merger between Orion Advisor Solutions and Brinker Capital closes, less than three months after it was first announced.
Sept. 25
Raymond James moves to combine its investment advisor and custody & clearing businesses into the newly created RIA & Custody Services Division.
Sept. 28
Envestnet hires Dana D’Auria, CFA, as co-chief investment officer. The former Symmetry Partners managing director also will serve on the investment committee of Envestnet | PMC.
Sept. 29
The Fed gives Schwab regulatory approval for the TD Ameritrade purchase. Bank of America Merrill taps two co-heads to lead its training efforts and creates the Advisory Division to focus on developing “early career advisors” within its Wealth Management business.
Sept. 30
Focus Financial Partners strikes a deal to buy Fairway Wealth Management, a $1.6 billion RIA. The acquisition is the fifth “partner” deal and 15th transaction of 2020.
Oct. 1
Morgan Stanley completes its acquisition of E-Trade.
Oct. 2
Carson Group raises more funding to make more minority investments in advisory firms that join its partnership program and help these firms make their own acquisitions.
Oct. 5
Schwab completes its purchase of TD Ameritrade for $22 billion, $4 billion less than when it first announced plans for the deal. The full integration of the two firms should take 18-36 months; its headquarters will move from San Francisco to Westlake, Texas, on Jan. 1, 2021. LPL Financial says BMO Harris Financial Advisors is set to move some $14 billion in brokerage and advisory assets and 115 financial advisors onto its platform by the middle of next year.
Oct. 6
Dynasty Financial Partners says it will soon close up shop in New York, as it aims to streamline operations in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Oct. 7
TD Ameritrade Institutional President Tom Nally and seven other TD Ameritrade executives are set to leave the firm; Schwab plans to have the 19-member Schwab Executive Council lead the combined entity.
Oct. 9
Wells Fargo says several hundred advisors have been included in the bank’s recent layoffs. It ended the third quarter with 12,908 financial advisors, down 815 from a year ago and 391 from the prior quarter. Wells Fargo Advisors’ current headcount is down by 2,178 advisors, or 14%, from Sept. 30, 2016, when news of its fake-accounts scandal broke widely. “While this change [from the prior quarter] represents retirements and some natural advisor attrition, it also includes the displacement of a sizable group of salary/bonus advisors as a result of the company’s work to become as efficient as we can,” explains a spokesperson.
Oct. 14
Fidelity’s eMoney Advisor software business says it plans to roll out a financial planning and wellness app called Incentive. Six firms are taking part in its pilot program, with broader availability set for January.
Oct. 20
Schwab is laying off 1,000 workers as it eliminates their roles after its purchase of TD Ameritrade.
Oct. 26
Former Wells Fargo CEO and Chairman John Stumpf and the bank’s ex-head of its Community Bank, Carrie Tolstedt, are charged by the SEC for their roles in allegedly misleading investors about the success of this business unit from 2014 to 2016. Stumpf has agreed to pay a $2.5 million penalty.
Nov. 13
Fidelity Institutional rolls out a wealth management platform. Fidelity Managed Account Xchange (FMAX) lets advisors offer a mix of financial planning services and managed accounts. The firm says FMAX is integrated with eMoney’s planning and Envestnet’s managed account technologies, simplifies contracting, gets rid of some manual processes and includes investment solutions from asset managers and investment consulting from Fidelity.
Nov. 16
BlackRock is buying personalized indexer/SMA shop Aperio Group for $1.05 billion in cash.
Nov. 23
S&P Global agrees to buy rival data provider IHS Markit for $39 billion.
Nov. 30
Design by Chris Nicholls
Photo credits: Envestnet: rafapress/Shutterstock; Morgan Stanley/E-Trade: Ascannio/Shutterstock; Stumpf: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
LPL Financial strikes a deal to buy Waddell & Reed's wealth unit from Macquarie Group for $1.7 billion; the business has some 921 advisors and $63 billion in assets.
Dec. 2
Goldman Sachs sells Folio Financial's retail investor business to Interactive Brokers but keeps Folio's RIA clearing and custody unit.
Dec. 4
Raymond James says it is buying retirement plan administrator NWPS, which works with $35 billion in assets.
Dec. 10
State Street reportedly is in talks with UBS about merging the two firms' asset management businesses.
Dec. 11
