Topic
The business of managing investments, planning, trusts and estates for individuals and families, run inside banks, brokerages and independent advisory firms.
Trust & Will launched a Nevada-chartered trust company with no minimum account size, aimed at households with under $10 million. Wealth Management reports it is the first digital estate-planning platform to act as a regulated corporate fiduciary, able to carry out plans as well as draft them.
Reality
Financial Planning's survey of 213 advisors puts confidence at minus-2 in October, down from plus-4 in July. Economic and policy outlooks fell while the score for advisors' own practices rose 9 points to plus-35.
Reality
Morgan Stanley reported third-quarter earnings of $3.03 a share, 7% above the $2.83 Zacks consensus, on $20.34 billion of net revenue. Equities trading gets credit for the lift, and the outlook for mergers and IPOs under rising rates is still open.
Perspective Coverage
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Morgan Stanley said more than half of its record $232 billion in third-quarter net new assets was tied to IPO-related flows, including SpaceX. That leaves under $116 billion from all other sources, roughly the total analysts expected if wealthmanagement.com's "doubled" is literal.
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Standard Chartered, with VARA approval, now lets Professional Investor clients in the UAE trade Bitcoin and Ether from existing bank accounts. The bank keeps custody and settlement itself, so exchanges are now its competitor for these clients, with price still untested.
Perspective Coverage
6 publishersReality
JPMorgan's asset and wealth division grew revenue 14% to $6.9 billion in the third quarter as fixed-income trading fell for the first time in two years. Wealth revenue grew 12% to 15% at three other banks, yet record equities trading and a higher interest-income outlook also offset the bond weakness.
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HSBC is preparing to cut about half of the managers and specialists in its UK wealth unit and close to 70% of its advisers, the FT reported. The bank has not confirmed the figures, and the cuts would partly reverse an earlier plan to hire more UK advisers and grow assets under management.
Perspective Coverage
4 publishersReality
Fidelity is giving advisory firms with less than $100 million on its custody platform until June 30 to move their accounts elsewhere. For firms that use Fidelity as their only custodian, the move means months of repapering client accounts, American Banker reported.
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Coalition Greenwich found 22% of investors with $100,000 to $5 million use both an advisor and a self-directed account. Those hybrids are about a third of advised clients and pick a 0.1% digital fee three times as often, so advising on their DIY money is a pricing problem.
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Goldman Sachs trained more than 120 new private wealth advisors this summer, its largest class ever and 30% larger than last year's. The bank is betting that splitting a fortune among heirs stays human work while chatbots take on more of an advisor's job.
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RQD's $74 million Bain-led raise was focused on international clearing, Datos Insights analysts say, as Fidelity moves to drop smaller RIAs. Fidelity's July 2027 cutoff at $100 million held with it gives a lift to an RQD adviser business of roughly 50 clients.
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Cerulli Associates and Morningstar found 53.4% of advisors who don't prioritize wealth growth rank help converting 401(k) participants a top-three need. Recordkeepers are courting the same savers, so an advisor who turns away small accounts risks the sponsor and the eventual rollover.
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Morningstar's 2026 survey finds US advisors still spend 27% of their time on investment strategy, four points above the 23% they say is ideal. More of them now offer private markets, a product whose due diligence adds to the hours they want to cut.
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Wealth CIOs are holding short Treasuries, but Amplius Wealth's Matthew Liebman is edging the $1.7 billion firm toward neutral duration. With little extra yield from two to 10 years in Treasuries, the case for longer bonds is being made in 10- to 15-year munis.
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TwinFocus's John Pantekidis says 'huge' commissions drive sales of private-placement life insurance, a policy that generally takes $5 million or more to open. Its tax deferral on alternatives suits only clients with that much spare cash who will let a third party run the investments.
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The 2027 plan lengthens the new-client bonus window to 24 months from 15 and strengthens net-new-money awards, and for the first time in three annual announcements the payout grid is untouched.
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The federal exemption is $15 million a person. New York begins taxing at $7.35 million for 2026, Oregon at $1 million. Which state collects depends on a domicile test that Venable's Lawrence Mandelker calls subjective.
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U.S. Bank's 2026 Wealth Report has two-thirds of Gen Z and Millennials opening a brokerage account before a down payment. Its private wealth president says parents are closing the housing gap out of guilt.
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John Lee's 2026-2030 plan commits the city to deeper offshore renminbi markets, a bigger wealth management industry and a gold trading ecosystem whose central clearing and settlement system is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2027.
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The Kitces Report's survey of more than 500 advisors has client acquisition cost down a third to $2,551 and the cost of buying a dollar of new revenue down 36% to 70 cents, against deals at 2.5 to 3.5 times revenue.
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