To My Fellow WSR Community Members:
Last week we recognized leaders in M&A investment banking. This week, we turn to an analysis of industry M&A as I bring you my quarterly thoughts on the current state and future of M&A in wealth management. Although much attention goes to RIA M&A, the latest spate of high-powered deals contained many broker-dealer acquisitions.
We could be witnessing a “back to the future” trend, where broker-dealer consolidation returns to the pace of a few years ago. I examine IBD M&A, contrast it with RIA M&A, and make observations on IBDs developing to more closely mimic RIAs in my latest quarterly editorial on wealth management M&A.
In addition, this week we bring you our latest Weekly Recruitment Roundup and Wealthtech Roundup, RetireOne’s survey on retirement and annuities, SkyView’s insights on advisor loans, a Herbers study on client services and Doug Fritz’s advice on leveraging workplace wealth and wellness to build your book.
Our Survey On Advisor Technology
Before detailing this week’s articles, I’m excited to announce that we’re conducting a survey on the state of advisor technology with Docupace. It just takes a couple minutes to make your voice heard about how your tech stack is serving your business and how it can do better. We’ll be giving away two Amazon gift cards of $250 each for winning participants.
This Week’s Issue
Without further ado, here’s what we have for you this week:
- Who did “Quad-A” honor this year? In Newsmakers & Roundups, this week’s recruitments cover Kestra bringing on Symonds Wealth Management, Osaic recruiting Illinois-based advisor Greg Diamond, NFP and its Wealthspire Advisors subsidiary conducting acquisitions, The Wellington Group and TrustWealth Strategies merging, Coldstream merging with the advisory firm SCG and the tax services firm HSA, the Association of African American Financial Advisors holding its annual V.I.S.I.O.N. Conference and Noreen Beaman joining the Commonwealth Advisory Board.
- Who’s our newest Wealthtech Leader of the Month? In Digital Domain, we speak with Intention.ly CEO Kelly Waltrich on the launch of Advisor Brand Builder. Other entries include Snappy Kraken partnering with Nitrogen on an automated lead-generation campaign, Docupace launching an API Developer Portal, Lumiant partnering with Concourse, FMG acquiring MyRepChat, YCharts launching its ‘Proposals’ enhancement for advisor-client communications, Natalie Wolfsen becoming the new CEO of Orion Advisor Solutions and Elements reaching 10,000 end-client users.
- Are you providing the services your clients want? In Newsmakers & Roundups, Herbers & Company reveals the results of its Service Market Growth Study highlighting industry trends, gaps between services, and demand and other discrepancies that may create opportunity for advisors.
- What trend can bring more long-term clients to your firm? In Upmarket, Co-Founder and CEO of F2 Strategy, Doug Fritz, examines the need for financial wellness education and services, the benefits it creates for both employees and employers, and how it ultimately leads to increased opportunity for financial advisors.
In case you missed it, last week we brought you:
- In Investment Solutions & Gatekeepers, RetireOne and Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America released the 2023 RIA Protected Accumulation + Retirement Income Survey. It found that a majority of the 200 RIA-based respondents believe their clients have serious concerns about being able to retire comfortably, and that a large minority of respondents are either hesitant to use annuities for their clients or underinformed about them.
- In Words In Edgewise, Scott Wetzel, CEO and Co-Founder of SkyView Partners, an investment bank and specialty lender supporting the M&A goals of RIAs, discussed the structure and appetite for loans in 2023, what makes for strong RIA and advisor loan candidates, as well as how his firm is innovating to meet evolving needs in the space.
- And in Capital Connections, I looked at the big picture of broker-dealer M&A to add historical context for the recent wave of IBD deals, which include LPL agreeing to acquire Crown Capital Securities, Atria acquiring Grove Point Financial, and Cetera acquiring certain assets of Securian and agreeing to acquire Avantax.
What more can you do to improve wealthtech services? Participate in the T3/Inside Information Software Survey.
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Cheers!
Larry Roth
CEO
Wealth Solutions Report
