Three Business Succession Lessons From Landman
The TV series *Landman* dramatizes the pitfalls of poorly executed business succession when M‑Tex Oil’s founder Monty dies without adequately preparing his heirs. His wife Cami inherits a complex estate, faces grief, and makes costly decisions, while the appointed president Tommy lacks clear authority, leading to a fractured leadership team. The storyline highlights three core failures: lack of successor training, emotional turmoil influencing governance, and an absence of a team‑based transition plan. The author uses these plot points to argue that legal documents alone cannot safeguard a company’s future.
Summit Stakes $1.2B RIA Signet Financial Management
Summit Financial, a New Jersey‑based RIA backed by Merchant Investment Management, has taken a minority, non‑controlling stake in Signet Financial Management, which manages $1.2 billion in client assets. The partnership is part of Summit’s Growth Partners initiative and allows Signet to...
Datalign Advisory Opens Custom AI Agent Platform for Wealth Management Firms
Datalign Advisory has opened its Halo agentic AI platform to wealth‑management firms, letting them build custom, branded AI agents that operate within a compliance‑by‑design framework. The platform draws on each firm’s investment philosophy, proprietary content and client data, and is...
How the 401(k) Industry Needs to Adjust to Phased Retirement
The 401(k) industry is confronting a shift toward phased retirement as longer, healthier lives reshape employee expectations. Only 7% of employers offer formal phased‑retirement programs, yet 40% of workers want them, and 33% of baby boomers are postponing full retirement...
Celebrity Estates: Cross-Border Estate Planning Lessons with Martin Behn
The Wealth Management podcast “Celebrity Estates” featured Lathrop GPM partner Martin Behn discussing the intricacies of cross‑border estate planning. Using actress Catherine O’Hara’s estate as a case study, Behn emphasized the need to locate every asset worldwide and determine which jurisdiction’s laws...
Q&A: Bolstered by Strong Fundamentals, REITs Close Gap with Broader Equities Market
Publicly‑traded REITs posted a 6.3% year‑over‑year rise in net operating income, with occupancy remaining in the mid‑to‑upper 90% range for most sectors and office at 87%. The FTSE Nareit U.S. All‑Equity REIT index delivered a 10.5% total return through February,...
Zephyr's Adjusted for Risk: Confidence in Crisis - Reshaping the American Dream
The Zephyr podcast featuring U.S. Bank’s Beth Lawlor highlights a "crisis of confidence" revealed in the 2025 Wealth Report, which surveyed 5,000 American adults. While the American Dream remains a cultural touchstone, milestones like marriage and homeownership are being delayed in favor...
Triad Wealth CIO: We Want to Introduce More Cyclicality in Our Models
Triad Wealth Partners, an institutional RIA founded in 2023, has scaled to over $1 billion in assets under management while focusing on mass‑affluent investors. The firm’s CIO Brent Coggins says the firm is tweaking its model portfolios to add more cyclicality...
‘Buffer’ ETFs Prove a Decent Bond Alternative in War-Hit Markets
Buffer ETFs, a $80 billion defined‑outcome fund category, are emerging as a bond alternative amid volatile markets and rising Treasury yields. The largest vehicle, FT Vest Laddered Buffer ETF, fell only 1.4% in March versus a 2.7% drop in the S&P 500,...
Federal Court Judge Blocks Prime Capital Advisors From Soliciting Edelman Clients
A Delaware federal judge granted Edelman Financial Engines a temporary restraining order that bars Prime Capital Advisors from using confidential information and soliciting Edelman's former clients. The order targets two former Edelman planners, Joan Greenspon and Amanda Salyer, who together...
RIA M&A Market Thus Far Enduring War, AI, Private Credit Bumps
Early 2026 data shows wealth‑management M&A remains resilient despite a modest dip. Announced RIA deals fell 8.3% year‑over‑year but are 14.5% higher than the same period in 2024, with 51 transactions recorded through February, well above 2024 levels. Industry insiders...
Zephyr's Adjusted for Risk: A New Era of Annuities - Insights From David Lau
On Zephyr’s Adjusted for Risk podcast, David Lau, founder and CEO of DPL Financial Partners, outlined how commission‑free annuities are reshaping retirement planning. He highlighted the proliferation of more than 100 low‑cost, fee‑only annuity products that address the growing income...
RIA Edge Podcast: Building a $700B RIA with Peter Mallouk
In the March 12 2026 RIA Edge Podcast, Creative Planning CEO Peter Mallouk outlines how he scaled the firm from a boutique operation with 30 clients to a $40 billion AUM powerhouse and set the stage for a $700 billion independent‑advisor market. He credits...
The Employee Ownership Operating System
The article outlines how employee ownership reshapes the operating system of wealth‑management firms, emphasizing sustainable, organic growth over aggressive AUM targets. It details the need to balance profit distribution between current owners, future stakeholders, and reinvestment for long‑term health. Talent...
Cetera Aims to Find More Organic Growth Via $50B Retirement Plan Assets
Cetera Solutions is turning its $50 billion in retirement‑plan assets and nearly one‑million participants into a primary engine for organic growth. President Christian Mitchell said the firm will deepen workplace and W‑2 advisor channels, using retirement advice as a referral and...
Report Finds Women Underrepresented in Wealth’s C-Suites, Wirehouses
A FINTRX study reveals women remain underrepresented in wealth‑management leadership and client‑facing roles. Women comprise 28% of the overall workforce but only about 20% of advisory positions, with even lower percentages in asset management and investment banking. Representation in core...
11 Investment Must Reads for This Week (March 10, 2026)
The escalating conflict in Iran is unsettling emerging‑market strategies that have enjoyed strong inflows over the past 18 months, prompting advisors to reassess risk exposure. Simultaneously, private credit faces heightened skepticism as defaults rise and redemption requests mount, while Fidelity’s...
Across Private Markets, Expect a Selective Normalization in 2026
Private markets are entering 2026 with a selective normalization after years of excess capital raising and soft performance. Buyout activity is rebounding as deal values rise, valuations ease, and GP‑led continuations now account for 35% of exits. Venture capital remains...
Why Clients Should Care About Capex
Capital expenditures have surged as AI drives massive data‑center builds, pushing big‑tech capex to its highest share of revenue in a decade. The Mag 7 and other hyperscalers are allocating roughly 100% of operating cash flow to capex in 2026, far...
Cresset Promotes President Susie Cranston to CEO
Cresset, the $235 billion multi‑family office, announced that President Susie Cranston will assume the chief executive officer role on April 15, joining the board of directors. Co‑founders Avy Stein and Eric Becker will step down as co‑CEOs and transition to executive co‑chairs,...
NewEdge Advisors Adds $6B Alabama Team to Employee Channel
NewEdge Advisors, the New Orleans‑based RIA partnership platform, has acquired Stonegate Investment Group, a Birmingham firm with 13 advisors and roughly $6 billion in client assets. The deal marks the largest addition to NewEdge’s pillar channel, pushing the channel’s total assets...
Morningstar Launches AI Assistant for Flagship Platform
Morningstar has introduced an AI assistant embedded in its Direct Advisory Suite, currently in beta for a limited group of 4,000 advisors out of more than 180,000 users. The voice‑enabled assistant combines multiple AI agents to streamline research, portfolio analysis,...
Fidelity: Position Portfolios for Resiliency to Navigate Volatility
Fidelity’s Q4 2025 portfolio review of 3,371 advisor‑constructed accounts shows a heavy tilt toward equities, with 72 % of assets in stocks and only 23 % in bonds. U.S. equities dominate the equity sleeve at 79 % and ETFs feature in 59 % of...
Invesco Launches a CIT With Private Real Estate Exposure
Invesco has launched the Invesco Core Plus Real Estate Trust, a collective investment trust (CIT) that blends core‑plus private real estate managed by Invesco Real Estate with passive U.S. REIT holdings, offering daily liquidity for defined contribution (DC) plans. The...
Morningstar: Active Funds Underperformed Passive Peers in 2025
Morningstar's 2025 Active/Passive Barometer shows only 38% of actively managed mutual funds and ETFs outperformed their asset‑weighted passive composites, a four‑point drop from 2024. Over a ten‑year horizon, just 21% of active funds beat passive peers, with bond and real‑estate...
Q&A: What Long-Term REIT Performance in Pension Plans Means for Investors
A new CEM Benchmarking study covering 26 years shows public REITs generated 9.72% annual net returns, outpacing private real estate’s 7.79% by roughly 2 percentage points. The analysis, based on realized performance from 462 pension plans, highlights that only internally...
