News & Insights

  • How Independent Broker-Dealers Compete Now

    By Larry Roth

    The growth of the RIA space spells doom for independent broker-dealers.” RIA cheerleaders have sounded this tired talking point like a drum for more than a decade now.

    Here’s the reality: The RIA space has been frontier territory for the past 15 years, with few regulatory barriers to entry and the favorable economics of fee-based models converging to drive outsized growth…

  • Navigating the blurring lines between M&A and recruiting

    By Larry Roth

    In years past, mergers and acquisitions among independent financial advisers were predominantly a prelude to succession — advisers nearing retirement were looking to take their money off the table and ride off into the sunset. Meanwhile, switching affiliations to another firm was a different animal altogether — less driven by retirement plans than a desire to change the scenery to a new broker-dealer or RIA that better fit the adviser’s needs…

  • How Firms Should Handle SPACs as They Eye Wealth Management

    By Larry Roth

    Special purpose acquisition companies are having a moment in the sun, and they’re making their way into the wealth management industry.

    Though they have been around in some form since the 1990s, SPACs have grown in popularity in recent years. As of Dec. 1, there were 201 IPOs of SPACs in 2020, with gross proceeds of $69.6 billion, according to SPACInsider, more than double the 59 transactions in 2019…

  • Advisor Group’s MyCMO Gives New Edge to Super-OSJs in Recruiting Wars

    By DWN Staff

    When Susan Theder of Advisor Group first launched MyCMO in 2017, it was the culmination of a clear vision: Creating a user friendly, integrated platform of digital marketing communications tools for independent financial advisors to adopt for the purposes of winning new clients while engaging with existing relationships…

  • IBDs Navigate The Pandemic

    By Eric Rasmussen

    The Covid-19 pandemic frayed the social and economic bonds that the world takes for granted, shone a light on vast inequality, revealed who had the resources to carry economic burdens and who were the most vulnerable to depredation…

  • Whiplashed by meteoric growth, Oleg Tishkevich seeks help to reinvent INVENT and brings Larry Roth on board to tame the flames

    By Oisin Breen

    Oleg Tishkevich has a too-much-growth problem, and he's solving it by onboarding an advisor who likes that kind of challenge.

    Tishkevich has hired Larry Roth on a part-time basis because INVENT’s growth shows no signs of stopping and he needs help thinking and acting big. His old company topped out at about 16 employees…