To My Fellow WSR Community Members:
We’re in the home stretch past Thanksgiving, fast approaching the year end, which means many things – multiple holidays and gatherings occur in December leading up to the reflections and resolutions of New Year’s Eve, retailers hawk their wares with discounts, and the C-suite engages in strategic planning and budgeting.
In wealth management, of course, we’re not only planning for our firms and ourselves, but most importantly, we’re ensuring the financial details are right for our clients when we flip the calendar to January.
In the holiday spirit, we bring you a focus on philanthropy that takes the discussion deeper than just charity deductions, into client engagement, advanced tax strategy and a motivated workplace. In a different spirit, our editor James Miller gives us his nihilistic take on the holidays in his monthly roundup of bizarre industry news.
We also bring you an exploration of options-based ETFs and how an advisor might deploy them for clients, our weekly recruitment news roundup, a wealth management holding company doubles down on the independent channel and our monthly wealthtech roundup highlighting the WSR Wealthtech Leader of the Month.
Also, don’t forget to keep an eye out for next week’s announcement of the winners of the WSR Wealth Exemplar Awards!
This Week’s Issue
Here’s what we have on tap this week:
- Is Merrill Lynch winning or losing the wirehouse wars? In Newsmakers & Roundups, our latest Weekly Recruitments covers different billion-dollar teams leaving, and joining, Merrill. We also recap LPL Financial’s deal to support the $4.4 billion Commerce Financial Advisors and Commonwealth Financial Network adding the $750 million Ryan Financial Group.
- Who is our newest Wealthtech Leader of the Month? In Digital Domain, we speak with Liz Fritz, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer at F2 Strategy. In addition, our Wealthtech Roundup covers FusionIQ launching its digital finTAMP solution, TIFIN rolling out an AI platform for client personalization, Envestnet enhancing advisor visibility into client finances and the SEI Wealth Platform partnering with LifeYield.
- Should you place options-based ETFs in your clients’ portfolio? In Investment Solutions & Gatekeepers, Troy Cates, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at NEOS Investments, discusses options-based ETF construction, the pros and cons of investing in them, potential tax savings and client suitability.
- How’s Atria Wealth Solutions staying on top of the independent channel game? Also in Newsmakers & Roundups, the firm appoints Bill Morrissey, former executive at LPL Financial, Guardian Life Insurance, Fidelity Investments and Merrill Lynch, in its newly created role of Head of the Independent Channel to spearhead the firm’s growth in the independent wealth management space.
- Looking for a grouchy spin on the holidays? In this month’s Bizarre Industry Bazaar, our James Miller relates an industry roundup of judgmental stories including Finra barring an advisor over football ticket reimbursements; the CFP Board’s license revocation of a rude planner; Dave Ramsey’s views on workplace judgment, fornication and shrimp; and economists rooting for the Phillies to lose the World Series, as well as Gisele and Tom’s losses in the FTX scandal.
- How do you excite employees while cutting taxes for clients? In Upmarket, Hayley Wood Bates, a Financial Advisor atSignature Estate & Investment Advisors, discusses philanthropic giving beyond the typical charity deduction – including advanced tax strategies, exciting and engaging clients, encouraging a happier workplace and attracting the next generation of professionals to your firm.
Share your thoughts, questions and suggestions with us!
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Have a great week!
Cheers!
Larry Roth
CEO
Wealth Solutions Report
