People Moves Related to "Why legacy firms that buy robos in haste show no signs of urgency after they take title"
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Fidelity will hire 4,000 staff in first half -- a staggering number but a tapering off from 'unprecedented' rate in 2021-2022 that catapulted it to 68,000 employees
The $10.3 trillion giant explains its hiring -- in a layoff environment -- as an RIA-like goal, namely having the human bandwidth to develop 'lifetime' relationships with its 40 million investors
February 17, 2023 at 2:49 AM
Wealthfront cedes to four years of investors clamoring for crypto by taking on expensive third-party vendor that Betterment rules out
The Redwood City, Calif., robo-advisor turned a hard 'no' into a soft 'yes' by dealing with Grayscale and its 200 basis-point-plus fees, which its robo rival in NYC -- also without a crypto path -- finds ludicrous.
August 14, 2021 at 2:20 AM
Fidelity Investments loses Kathleen Murphy who largely caught up Fido to Schwab (near $4T) on the retail side by reversing net promoter scores
The 'no whining allowed' leader of the Boston giant's retail business, who oversaw $2 trillion in net new assets, was ready to exit but hung in through a year dominated by COVID-19 challenges
January 23, 2021 at 2:02 AM
Second Betterment exec departs as new CEO Sarah Levy orients to her first month on the job and is confronted by personnel matters
Chief operating officer Dustin Lucien is the latest to leave the New York City robo-advisor, one of at least eight positions open as it prepares a push across multiple business lines to ignite growth.
January 19, 2021 at 6:32 PM
Wealthfront's unlikely tapping of Sheila Bair and Tom Curry signals likely push to gain a bank charter, analysts say
The Redwood City robo-advisor's addition of two renowned former chief banking regulators brings legitimacy and guidance that could lead to a margin-fattening bank charter and help solve the robo-advisor's problem of high client acquisition costs.
December 31, 2020 at 4:37 AM
Jon Stein ousts himself as Betterment CEO and taps Sarah Levy, who joins an exclusive club of top women executives, with a mission -- an IPO
The co-founder of the New York robo-advisor headhunted the ex-Viacom brass through Harvard professors on the down low to ostensibly scale operations.
December 8, 2020 at 5:27 PM
Oisín's Bits: Wealthfront drops old mission statement, declares war on institutions and emphasizes banking future • Seeking Utah charter, Edward Jones may become largest bank in US by branch count • After Advent chief leaves, Black Diamond head steps up
Andy Rachleff cans the old 'democratizing' mission statement at his robo; The 14,200 one-man Ed Jones branches may become branch banks; Steve Leivent consolidates power at SS&C.
July 3, 2020 at 1:12 AM
Fidelity Institutional looks like a big TAMP after Mike Durbin removes last internal walls between products and advisors after 'meteoric' 2019 leap; two Fido RIA sales legends depart amid the shift
Rich Policastro and Tom Valverde are out after Fidelity Custody & Clearing assets leap to $2.6 trillion AUA, restructuring gets the credit -- and so restructuring gets extended.
March 13, 2020 at 10:36 PM
TD Ameritrade's board suddenly pushes out Tim Hockey after his big misread of RIAs; Tom Bradley name-dropped as successor
The CEO broke the TD promise never to compete with RIAs, took it back and got sent packing
July 23, 2019 at 4:30 AM
With IPO clock at 10-years and ticking, Personal Capital makes two big, out-of-character moves to go upmarket and downmarket
With $9 billion in assets, the Redwood City-based national RIA hired the ex-Virgin America CMO Porter Gale to make one brand investors associates with both the freebie tools and the full-priced financial advice its advisors provide mostly from call centers
March 22, 2019 at 7:55 PM
Capital Group miraculously recovered after deep 2008 dive but RIA help may get No. 2 American Funds through the next downturn under new CEO
Matthew O’Connor takes the CEO helm of the giant LA-based active manager from Kevin Clifford with conviction not to jam the rudder hard but to be open to new markets