The InvestmentNews Podcast

Bruce is joined by Ron Carson, founder and CEO of Carson Group, and John Furey, managing partner of Advisor Growth Strategies, to talk about Goldman’s sale of United Capital and how financial advisors can move beyond a mindset of fear and scarcity. This episode is sponsored by Schwab Asset Management.

The InvestmentNews podcast returns after a summer hiatus. In this episode, Bruce talks to fellow reporters Ryan Neal and Emile Hallez, respectively, about AI and college debt. Guest Bios: Ryan Neal is technology editor at InvestmentNews. Originally from Northern California, Ryan received bachelor’s degrees in English and philosophy from UC Santa Barbara before beginning a career in journalism at t...

The inaugural episode of the InvestmentNews Podcast doesn’t hold back; diving into essential topics for the financial advice industry from diversity to succession planning to potential layoffs and cost cutting to come at large firms that advisers rely on for service and technology. This episode includes a free-wheeling discussion of four main topics: diversity issues in the financial advice indust...

The momentum continues with the second weekly episode of the InvestmentNews Podcast, where senior columnists Jeff Benjamin and Bruce Kelly take opposing sides of some important issues facing the wealth management industry. This week Jeff and Bruce scratch beneath the surface of SEC chairman Jay Clayton’s contributions to the financial services industry, what recourse brokers have when consolidatio...

Episode 3: The new reality of Reg BI & why brokers and advisers will continue to butt heads. by The InvestmentNews Podcast

The SBA released the list of PPP loan recipients recently and the wealth management industry is scrambling to justify their loans while operating a fee-based business model. What exactly are semitransparent ETFs and why do they matter? As these unique new funds slowly come to market, questions remain as to whether the market has any interest. Cetera’s new head of recruiting has a steep hill to cli...

As Joe Biden releases his tax plan, we fold in a deep dive into the odds of a financial transaction tax hitting wealth management. The pace of mergers and acquisitions in the RIA space fell off pace from March through May, but ramped back up in June, suggesting the second half of the year could be on pace with the record levels of 2019. IN technology reporter Nicole Casperson joins the podcast to...

Dani Fava emerged this week as the latest example of fallout from Schwab’s pending $26 billion acquisition of TD Ameritrade. She explains her rationale for joining Envestnet to take on new challenges. Bruce explains how the math doesn’t add up at GPB Capital, where the latest public filings point to a $200 million gap at this alternative investments operation. The conundrum of why zero-fee funds d...

InvestmentNews senior reporter Mark Schoeff, a veteran Washington insider, takes us behind the scenes of Congress and regulatory rule making to highlight the hurdles facing ESG investments trying to get a piece of the lucrative retirement savings market. Bruce details the sad regulatory track record of Purshe Kaplan Sterling, where million-dollar-plus settlements are too common. We explain why The...

Recruiting behemoth LPL Financial never lets up, and we look at the latest effort to expand the footprint. Skip Schweiss becomes the latest high-profile exec to jump ship at TD Ameritrade ahead of the Schwab acquisition. Morgan Stanley’s acquisition of ETrade has left the big bank with a small custody business that might not have a permanent home. And in the Open Notebook segment Jeff and Bruce de...

Merrill Lynch has learned that broker trainees are one group of employees that is not best suited for the remote work environment. The wirehouse has temporarily shuttered its trainee program after some of the cold-calling newbies apparently went off the rails. Who didn’t see this happening? Jeff and Bruce take another look at the potential conflicts of interest that could arise as Morgan Stanley c...

We look at how the Twitter dustup between two advisers over politics should send a message to the financial services community that it doesn’t pay to let your political colors show on social media. Also, Covid has had a negative impact on broker recruiting. Then we get into the trend toward reducing bond allocations from otherwise balanced portfolios. And Bruce Kelly dishes up another example of a...

From Washington, D.C., special guest Mark Schoeff joins hosts Jeff Benjamin and Bruce Kelly to look at the fallout for the wealth management industry in the wake of both the Democratic and Republican national conventions. Jeff raises the question of accredited investors, Bruce has an update on the ongoing GPB scandal and Mark takes issue with PR folks hampering interviews at times.

Mary Beth Franklin is one of the country’s leading experts on Social Security and Medicare. An award-winning journalist and Certified Financial Planner, Mary Beth writes a weekly column on retirement issues for Investment News and is author of the ebook, Maximizing Your Social Security Retirement Benefits.

This week we looking into the NFL Players Association rules for hiring financial advisers, along with the poor performance of active management. Hosts Jeff and Bruce also look at job cuts at Raymond James, a guest appearance by IN reporter Emile Hallez to discuss his latest cover story, and we grade Morningstar’s virtual conference.

Hosts Jeff Benjamin and Bruce Kelly dedicate this week’s show to a candid conversation with Dr. Burton Malkiel, legendary author of “A Random Walk Down Wall Street” and a renowned investor and economist who spent most of his career ruffling the feathers of the Wall Street establishment. They discuss Malkiel’s views that the current trend of ESG investing may not be the best method for reaching eit...

Hosts Jeff Benjamin and Bruce Kelly are joined by fellow InvestmentNews reporter Emile Hallez to dig deep into how living longer and getting a better sense of longevity in general is changing financial planning. This episode also looks at examples of prejudice across the financial services industry

Hosts Jeff Benjamin and Bruce Kelly are joined by fellow InvestmentNews reporter Nicole Casperson to discuss what the Schwab-TD megamerger means for the overlapping custodial platforms. Also on the docket, Morgan Stanley buys Eaton Vance, and a look at whether one financial adviser on the lam is a sign of things to come.

Hosts Jeff Benjamin and Bruce Kelly tackle the Wells Fargo riddle, with its budget cuts that sent a sizable group of advisers packing. The Social Security trust funds, created to help pay future retirement benefits when payroll tax revenues alone are no longer sufficient, will run dry sooner than previously predicted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the recession it triggered. Mary Beth Franklin j...

Hosts Jeff Benjamin and Bruce Kelly delve into the story behind Josh Brown’s latest book, ‘How I Invest My Money,’ a collection of essays by leading financial professionals on how they manage their own money. The renowned Reformed Broker talks about how he got to where he is and why he is no longer a fan of Twitter.

Jeff Benjamin and Bruce Kelly discuss whether financial regulations will be affected if Democrats win the 2020 election. This week’s episode also includes a conversation with Michelle Fuller, head of ETF distribution at John Hancock Investment Management. And we wrap it up with an Open Notebook segment on Schwab christening its 30th annual Impact conference in virtual fashion.

Bruce Kelly talks to Nicole Casperson about the proliferation of free robo-platforms across large financial institutions and how they are using these digital tools to cross-sell to their smaller investors. Jeff Benjamin then interviews Todd Rosenbluth, who outlines the odd evolution of semitransparent ETFs. The market demand doesn’t seem high, yet more and more of them are being launched. Jeff and...

After the weekend announcement of Biden’s victory, Jeff and Bruce talk with IN’s D.C. correspondent, Mark Schoeff, about what advisers can expect from the incoming administration in terms of department heads, regulations, ESG and of course, taxes.

Jeff Benjamin and Bruce Kelly welcome Jon Dauphiné from the Foundation for Financial Planning to discuss his group’s call asking for advisers to commit to at least 25 hours of pro bono work a year. He explains why this commitment would be good for advisers, and why it would be good for the industry as a whole. In the second half, Bruce and Jeff chat about an analyst from Bank of America Merrill Ly...

Kurt MacAlpine, CEO of Canada’s CI Financial, joins Jeff Benjamin and Bruce Kelly to talk about his company’s buying spree. CI Financial has struck 12 deals so far this year, purchasing U.S. RIAs large and small. They chat about Kurt’s mandate as the new CEO, CI’s strategy, and the RIA market in North America.