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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.

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!