This Week in Wealth

Alex, Ian and Alec discuss a relatively rocky week for some key players in the wealth management industry, starting with some indicators in LPL Financial's latest earnings report that its recruiting engine has slowed down amidst its battle to retain Commonwealth advisors. The trio also go over the recent spate of data breaches across a host of household names which have exposed thousands of clients' sensitive data.

Ian, Sam, and Alex discuss the task ahead for Focus Financial Partners’ new CEO, Adam Birenbaum, who is charged with steering the firm through a cycle that goes beyond acquisition and consolidation. The team also digs into Merchant Investment Management’s latest capital raise, its second in less than two years, which is being led by PE shop Sixth Street. Plus, they have the skinny on possibly the most famous financial advisor in America today: Rulla Nehme Pontarelli, the Osaic-affiliated advisor who has landed a starring role on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Rhode Island.

Some 11,000 advisors switched firms last year. But which companies suffered the biggest exits, and where did those advisors go? Ian and Alex have the answers. They also wrap up a series of new initiatives from Charles Schwab, plus Ian provides updates from a somewhat secret conference in San Francisco.

Via the magic of Citywire RIA’s new Deals Database, Alex, Ian, and Alec take a look at the most notable wealth management M&A of Q1. Who’s been busy buying? What have they bought? Which PE firms are driving the deals? And what does it all mean for the rest of the year? These questions and more are covered. Additionally, the team takes a deep dive into Osaic’s recent capital raise—which includes a minority investment by Bain Capital—plus LPL and Private Advisor Group’s acquisition of Mariner’s $31bn platform business. You can check out the Deals Database here - https://citywire.com/ria/deals

Special guest Michael Batnick, the managing partner of Ritholtz Wealth Management (and a prodigious podcaster in his own right!), joins Ian and Alex to discuss the latest changes to Fidelity's lucrative Wealth Advisor Solutions network, how his $7.6bn RIA found an internal succession solution and the red flags around private credit.

Happy Opening Day! Ian and Citywire RIA reporter Peter Saalfield speak with ex-New York Yankee Kevin Thompson, now the CEO of 9i Capital Group and learn about how he went from seeing his advisor affected by the Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme to running his own wealth manager, how his firm operates as a smaller practice in a consolidating industry and how Derek Jeter made his own rules of the road (you'll understand when you listen).

Commonwealth reduced a $93m SEC penalty to just $5m. All it took was a seven-year legal battle and a new regime at the regulator. Plus, the CFP Board considers waiving its bachelor's degree requirement.

Ian and Alex discuss Edelman Financial Engines’ decision to award $175m in equity grants to its financial planners, the spate of lawsuits facing RIAs over client data breaches, and AlTi Global’s failure to meet its full-year earnings filing deadline.

Ian and Alex are joined by Citywire founder and chairman Lawrence Lever to discuss why US consolidators are looking across the pond to buy British wealth managers. These firms are cheap, compared to their US peers, so what's the catch? They also cover Anthropic's endorsement of human financial advice and the key takeaways from Citywire's recent CEO Summit.

Ian, Alec, and Alex discuss two divergent deals from two of the largest RIAs in the market. Wealth Enhancement enters the support services game with its deal for FocusPoint Solutions, while Hightower edges away from that model, growing its Signature Wealth business by merging in $5bn Journey Strategic Wealth. Plus, Ric Edelman on how and why we might see a $1tn RIA. If you want to keep track of all the M&A in the RIA market, take a look at our Deals Database.

Ian and Alex discuss the sale, or not, of listed wealth manager AlTi Global (formerly known as Tiedemann), plus Goldman Sachs’ plans to offer long-short SMAs to its RIA custody clients—a move that just happens to coincide with Fidelity putting an indefinite pause on such business. And Alec dials in to give an update on LPL’s partnership with Anthropic and whether this changes the conversation about AI’s impact on wealth management.

Ian, Andrew and Alex discuss LPL Financial’s move to lay off 3% of its workforce, a story that broke in the same week that the firm’s stock sold off dramatically amid AI anxiety. They also dig into Cerity Partners’ $1bn deal with private equity firm Warburg Pincus, which values the mega-RIA at $8.5bn.

Wealth stocks sold off sharply this week, triggered by a new AI-powered tax planning tool from custodian Altruist. But what does the tool do? And what does the selloff portend – the end of wealth management as we know it, or that listed legacy players will be disintermediated by new tech? This Week in Wealth separates the signal from the noise.

Ian, Alec and Alex discuss Barry Ritholtz, co-founder of $7.6bn Ritholtz Wealth Management, selling a portion of his stake in the New York City-based RIA to its employees as part of a planned internal succession. They also check in on LPL’s efforts to retain Commonwealth advisors following last year’s $2.7bn deal. And have the lowdown on $2.1bn RIA First Long Island Investors pursuing a sale, including the firm's financials and its founder’s past as an owner of the New York Islanders.

Ian, Alec and Alex discuss the outlook for mega-RIA Edelman Financial Engines under new CEO Ralph Haberli and the repercussions of last year’s failed sale. They also analyze a change at the top of Pershing and what this might mean for the platform in an increasingly competitive custodian market.

It has been a busy year for Hightower Signature Wealth. The business hit $21bn after merging in five new firms, is weighing a change to the way its advisors get paid and saw its head of succession planning depart. And we’re still in January! Ian, Sam and Alex dig into the details. They also discuss Ian’s scoop on Cresset raising $300m and explore the SEC’s latest piece of guidance on its marketing rule.

The regulator kicked off 2026 by proposing to raise its threshold for what constitutes a small advisory firm to $1bn in AUM, up from $25m. It’s a move that could affect more than 70% of RIAs, have an impact on the way future rules are written, and save advisors time and money. This Week in Wealth breaks down the details. Plus, there are two big deals to discuss.

Ian, Andrew and Alex are back for the first This Week in Wealth episode of 2026. And despite the year only being days old, there has been no shortage of big RIA news. The team discusses Andrew’s scoop on Goldman Sachs’ plans to refer clients of its Ayco executive financial counseling division out to independent wealth managers. Two of the country’s largest wealth managers have already signed up, but questions remain about how it will work. We also go deep on mega-RIA Mercer Advisors’ decision to raise fees by 50% for some of its smaller-dollar clients. Finally, it would not be an early 2026 podcast without some predictions. Happy new year!

We have a quiz! Play along at home! It's a fun, if occasionally labored, way of covering the most consequential stories in US wealth management from the last year. How many can you remember and what will their impact be? Alex, Ian and Andrew discuss. On the topic of massive news, the team also breaks down one last big deal — Corient's approach for $89bn AlTi Global. This is our final episode of 2025, thank you all for listening. This Week in Wealth will return in 2026. Happy holidays!

For our penultimate episode of 2025, This Week in Wealth is joined by Cetera Financial Group CEO Mike Durbin, who discusses everything from the firm’s efforts to recruit Commonwealth advisors to the importance of M&A for growth. In both instances, it’s a case of watch this space! He also explains why the firm is not solely focused on the RIA model and shares the pressures that keep him on his toes. 

When robo-advisors first arrived, they were supposed to be an existential threat to the traditional wealth management industry. But It didn't quite work out that way. Alex, Ian and Alec discuss a few timely events in the robo business, as two of the sector's biggest businesses — Wealthfront and Betterment — pursue an IPO and raise fees on their smallest clients, respectively.

Alec Rich, Ian Wenik and Alex Steger discuss Citywire’s recent scoop on Mobile Assistant, a transcription service for advisors, which floated (and ultimately decided against) using anonymized historical data to train a wealth-focused AI tool. The story is interesting for a number of reasons, not least because it raises questions about what kind of legacy data advisors might have with various service providers and how that could be used in a world of AI. The team also dig into a reshuffle at the top of Fidelity’s custody division with leader Rohit Mahna leaving after just two years in the job.   

Andrew, Ian and Alex discuss the end of a two-year legal saga between Mercer and ACG Wealth, a $1.3bn shop that the mega-RIA acquired in 2021. The deal quickly soured leading to claims and counterclaims over missing revenue, lower payouts, golf days and defamation. The team recap one of the messiest divorces in RIA M&A. They also breakdown LPL's move to stake $41bn Private Advisor Group and what this might mean for the broke-dealer's (sometimes tense) relationships with its OSJs.

Ian, Sam and Alex discuss the quiet rise of $580bn RIA Wealthspire, which this week unveiled its new C-suite following its re-acquisition by PE backer Madison Dearborn and subsequent merger with three other businesses. The team also looks at another wealth giant, $89bn AlTi Global. The firm is also a product of a series of mergers, and – according to Citywire’s reporting – there might be more deals to come.

Ian and Sam join the pod from Denver, Colorado where they have been attending Schwab Impact, the custodian's annual advisor jamboree. A bellwether for the wider wealth management industry, headlines from this year’s conference have been dominated by ... err ... Schwab, which has been busy buying a private markets platform, launching a growth consultancy for small RIAs, and cracking down on 401(k) credential sharing. To name just three stories. The Week in Wealth team break down these news items and more from the Mile High City.

Alex, Ian and Sam discuss Sam's reporting on investment bank and broker-dealer Stifel emphatically denying that it is selling itself to Raymond James and how Thursday's denial doesn't necessarily mean the story is over, plus Ian explains how and why Constellation Wealth Capital's Karl Heckenberg is looking to raise $2bn from investors to buy minority stakes in RIAs.

Ian and Houlihan Lokey managing director Steven Levitt have an extended conversation about how RIA auction processes work, what Steven learned from selling his own business to a larger institution and what might cause wealth management dealmaking to slow down.

Alex, Ian and Andrew break down two of Citywire's biggest scoops of 2025: Schwab's decision to tighten the eligibility requirements for clients to be referred out to its affiliated RIAs and Edelman Financial Engines halting its sale process and subsequently changing CEOs. The trio also recap Creative Planning's acquisition of retirement plan business SageView Advisory Group and Citywire's flagship CIO Summit in Austin.

Alex, Ian and Andrew have an in-depth discussion about the hidden role that alternative asset manager Ares Management has played in funding so much of the M&A activity in the wealth management industry through its private credit division. Now that Ares is a direct equity investor in an RIA through its recent deal with EP Wealth, what is the future of its shadow banking operation?

Citywire RIA’s roving reporter Alec Rich hopped on a plane to Georgia to cover the latest twist in an ongoing legal battle between $129bn breakaway OpenArc Corporate Advisors (plus Dynasty Financial Partners and Charles Schwab) and Merrill Lynch. He joins the pod to share everything he learned in Atlanta and explain what happens next. Also on the podcast, Andrew talks about that rarest of things — a wealth firm going public. And Ian is back (sort of) with the lowdown on Ares’ first foray into buying equity in an RIA.  

Andrew Foerch, Alec Rich and Alex Steger discuss a $129bn team's decision to ditch Merrill Lynch and set up an RIA with help from Dynasty and Schwab. The scale of the move is huge and so are its ramifications for all parties involved. Not least because Merrill has already filed a doozy of a lawsuit. Andrew, Alec and Alex get into it all. They also look at the perhaps surprising wind-down of Strive Wealth Management, which is shutting shop less than a year after its formal launch. 

Ian Wenik, Andrew Foerch and Alex Steger discuss the latest evolution in Hightower's corporate strategy — to consolidate and centralize its affiliate advisors. The team explores the firm's motivation for doing this and what it says about the wider RIA market. They also analyze two major deals — Creative Planning's swoop for SageView and the Pritzker Org's Wellspring stake — and catch up on Andrew and Ian's time at last week's Future Proof conference. 

Few people have overseen more RIA deals than Accelerated Wealth Partners CEO Eric Amar. During a decade at Focus Financial Partners, he worked on more than 60 mergers and acquisitions, giving him a firsthand view of what buyers want, and what sellers should know, when making a deal. In this episode of This Week in Wealth, Eric talks to Ian and Alex about that process. He shares how it has changed with the influx of private equity money, the key metrics that buyers look at, and what sellers should ask so that they can make a decision that’s best for them.

Ian and Sam Bojarski have an extended discussion about Sam's scoop on LPL Financial making a concerted push to convert hybrid advisors onto its corporate RIA. In addition to discussing who wins financially through these conversions, Ian and Sam touch on Sam's brush with fame and King of the Hill.

M&A, beards, babies and baseball — this podcast has it all! Ian, Alex and Andrew go deep on MAI and Evoke's tie-up and Merchant’s minority investment in a $2.5bn California RIA — two deals which speak to the maturity of the RIA market and the variety options now available to sellers. Facial hair, paternity leave and the Mets also get a mention.

Ian and — in his podcast return — Andrew Foerch discuss what Cresset's move to merge with $124bn investment consultancy Monticello Associates says about the industry-wide drive to acquire wealth assets which may not be under management and talk about how $25bn Homrich Berg's rebrand is a sign of how much the RIA industry has changed recently.

Alex, Ian and Alec Rich discuss three major Citywire RIA exclusives: Alec’s scoop on a flood of exits from Raymond James’s custody unit, Ian’s discovery that Hightower founder Elliot Weissbluth is returning to the wealth business and a new feature highlighting the fastest-growing RIAs under $1bn in assets.

Alex Steger, Ian Wenik and Alec Rich do a deep dive into one of Citywire’s biggest projects: 50 Growers Across America. The trio discuss how they identified the fastest-growing RIAs in the country, how those firms beat the competition and their relationships with institutional investors.

Alex Steger and Ian Wenik do a deep dive into why so many new RIA-focused minority investors have popped up in recent years, what they're offering and why sellers might like them to traditional options such as private equity firms and strategic acquirers.

Creative Planning CEO Peter Mallouk joins This Week in Wealth to discuss the state of RIA M&A, how his own role has evolved, and what’s next for his $370bn firm. Mallouk, who has completed scores of acquisitions, including the 2023 deal for Goldman Sachs Personal Financial Management, explains why there is still plenty of PE money chasing RIAs but argues that multiples are increasingly challenged for larger firms, unless they are growing organically. In a wide-ranging interview, Mallouk also shares how his responsibilities have changed and looks back at a formative job for the Kansas City Royals.

Alex Steger and Ian Wenik walk through Osaic's $4.3bn debt capital raise, which allowed Citywire RIA readers and listeners to get a rare look inside the financial terms of a large RIA acquisition, along with AllianceBernstein's efforts to acquire an RIA. Plus, Alec Rich joins to the show to recap a new lawsuit filed against Edelman Financial Engines by a woman who claims she is the victim of a crypto scam.

Ian Wenik and Alec Rich come back from the long weekend to discuss how a new survey from AdvisorPro sheds light on the looming demographic crisis RIAs face and recap how Merit Financial Advisors grew to $20bn and secured a new investment from Constellation Wealth Capital.

Alex and Ian look back at the most popular RIA news stories of H1 (there's a quiz and quiz music), check in on their own forecasts for 2025 (not a total bust), and discuss some of the more unexpected events of the year so far. Happy 4th of July listeners!

Alex, Ian and Sam discuss the latest developments in an ongoing legal dispute between Carson Group and a former marketing executive. They also break down robo-advisor Wealthfront's decision to pursue an IPO and LPL's attempts to keep Commonwealth advisors in the fold.

Using a poll of attendees at Citywire's San Diego CIO Summit as a jumping-off point, Alex, Ian and Sam discuss when — or if — an RIA will go public, why private credit is simultaneously both popular with and scary for wealth managers and a rollback of some SEC proposals which had garnered major coverage.

Focus Financial Partners chief executive Michael Nathanson believes that RIAs are in a new era, that the 'age of the founder is coming to an end' and that aggregators need a new model. Alex, Ian and Andrew (plus a special, arguably unwanted, guest) discuss Nathanson's comments, map out how the RIA industry has evolved and forecast where things will go next. Plus, the Padres, Charles Dickens and an update on Ian's back.

Alex Steger, Ian Wenik and Alec Rich discuss their latest scoops on Pershing instituting a new asset-based fee for custodial clients, an explosive lawsuit between an Osaic client and his advisor-turned-ex-wife, and $8bn Wealthcare's agreement to sell itself to an insurance giant.

Alex Steger, Ian Wenik, Sam Bojarski and Alec Rich recap recent Citywire scoops on Orion founder Eric Clarke leaving the tech company's board, a wave of layoffs at LPL acquisition Atria Wealth Solutions and the changing dynamics within the SEC.

Alex Steger, Ian Wenik, Andrew Foerch and Sam Bojarski discuss Mercer Advisors’ latest salvo in a sprawling legal battle related to ACG Wealth, an acquisition it made in 2021, but which has since soured into acrimony. They also explore Citywire’s exclusive research on RIAs’ working habits and find out what happened in Vegas (where Ian went to report on Osaic’s NXT conference).

Alex Steger, Ian Wenik and Andrew Foerch look at what Hightower's first acquisition of 2025 means in the context of the company's history, discuss Citywire's new data project examining how much RIA employees get paid and recap last week's Citywire CIO Summit in Nashville.