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'This Week in Wealth' is Citywire's weekly podcast that breaks down the biggest stories in the US wealth management industry and what they mean for advisors. Citywire USA editor-in-chief Alex Steger and Citywire RIA editor Ian Wenik are joined by a rotating cast of Citywire journalists and notable industry names.
56 Episodes
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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.
It has been a busy year for Hightower Signature Wealth. The business hit $21bn after merging in five new firms, is weighing a change to the way its advisors get paid and saw its head of succession planning depart. And we’re still in January! Ian, Sam and Alex dig into the details. They also discuss Ian’s scoop on Cresset raising $300m and explore the SEC’s latest piece of guidance on its marketing rule.
The regulator kicked off 2026 by proposing to raise its threshold for what constitutes a small advisory firm to $1bn in AUM, up from $25m. It’s a move that could affect more than 70% of RIAs, have an impact on the way future rules are written, and save advisors time and money. This Week in Wealth breaks down the details. Plus, there are two big deals to discuss.
Ian, Andrew and Alex are back for the first This Week in Wealth episode of 2026. And despite the year only being days old, there has been no shortage of big RIA news. The team discusses Andrew’s scoop on Goldman Sachs’ plans to refer clients of its Ayco executive financial counseling division out to independent wealth managers. Two of the country’s largest wealth managers have already signed up, but questions remain about how it will work. We also go deep on mega-RIA Mercer Advisors’ decision to raise fees by 50% for some of its smaller-dollar clients. Finally, it would not be an early 2026 podcast without some predictions. Happy new year!
We have a quiz! Play along at home! It's a fun, if occasionally labored, way of covering the most consequential stories in US wealth management from the last year. How many can you remember and what will their impact be? Alex, Ian and Andrew discuss. On the topic of massive news, the team also breaks down one last big deal — Corient's approach for $89bn AlTi Global. This is our final episode of 2025, thank you all for listening. This Week in Wealth will return in 2026. Happy holidays!
For our penultimate episode of 2025, This Week in Wealth is joined by Cetera Financial Group CEO Mike Durbin, who discusses everything from the firm’s efforts to recruit Commonwealth advisors to the importance of M&A for growth. In both instances, it’s a case of watch this space! He also explains why the firm is not solely focused on the RIA model and shares the pressures that keep him on his toes.
When robo-advisors first arrived, they were supposed to be an existential threat to the traditional wealth management industry. But It didn't quite work out that way. Alex, Ian and Alec discuss a few timely events in the robo business, as two of the sector's biggest businesses — Wealthfront and Betterment — pursue an IPO and raise fees on their smallest clients, respectively.
Alec Rich, Ian Wenik and Alex Steger discuss Citywire’s recent scoop on Mobile Assistant, a transcription service for advisors, which floated (and ultimately decided against) using anonymized historical data to train a wealth-focused AI tool. The story is interesting for a number of reasons, not least because it raises questions about what kind of legacy data advisors might have with various service providers and how that could be used in a world of AI. The team also dig into a reshuffle at the top of Fidelity’s custody division with leader Rohit Mahna leaving after just two years in the job.
Andrew, Ian and Alex discuss the end of a two-year legal saga between Mercer and ACG Wealth, a $1.3bn shop that the mega-RIA acquired in 2021. The deal quickly soured leading to claims and counterclaims over missing revenue, lower payouts, golf days and defamation. The team recap one of the messiest divorces in RIA M&A. They also breakdown LPL's move to stake $41bn Private Advisor Group and what this might mean for the broke-dealer's (sometimes tense) relationships with its OSJs.
Ian, Sam and Alex discuss the quiet rise of $580bn RIA Wealthspire, which this week unveiled its new C-suite following its re-acquisition by PE backer Madison Dearborn and subsequent merger with three other businesses. The team also looks at another wealth giant, $89bn AlTi Global. The firm is also a product of a series of mergers, and – according to Citywire’s reporting – there might be more deals to come.
Ian and Sam join the pod from Denver, Colorado where they have been attending Schwab Impact, the custodian's annual advisor jamboree. A bellwether for the wider wealth management industry, headlines from this year’s conference have been dominated by ... err ... Schwab, which has been busy buying a private markets platform, launching a growth consultancy for small RIAs, and cracking down on 401(k) credential sharing. To name just three stories. The Week in Wealth team break down these news items and more from the Mile High City.
Alex, Ian and Sam discuss Sam's reporting on investment bank and broker-dealer Stifel emphatically denying that it is selling itself to Raymond James and how Thursday's denial doesn't necessarily mean the story is over, plus Ian explains how and why Constellation Wealth Capital's Karl Heckenberg is looking to raise $2bn from investors to buy minority stakes in RIAs.
Ian and Houlihan Lokey managing director Steven Levitt have an extended conversation about how RIA auction processes work, what Steven learned from selling his own business to a larger institution and what might cause wealth management dealmaking to slow down.
Alex, Ian and Andrew break down two of Citywire's biggest scoops of 2025: Schwab's decision to tighten the eligibility requirements for clients to be referred out to its affiliated RIAs and Edelman Financial Engines halting its sale process and subsequently changing CEOs. The trio also recap Creative Planning's acquisition of retirement plan business SageView Advisory Group and Citywire's flagship CIO Summit in Austin.
Alex, Ian and Andrew have an in-depth discussion about the hidden role that alternative asset manager Ares Management has played in funding so much of the M&A activity in the wealth management industry through its private credit division. Now that Ares is a direct equity investor in an RIA through its recent deal with EP Wealth, what is the future of its shadow banking operation?
Citywire RIA’s roving reporter Alec Rich hopped on a plane to Georgia to cover the latest twist in an ongoing legal battle between $129bn breakaway OpenArc Corporate Advisors (plus Dynasty Financial Partners and Charles Schwab) and Merrill Lynch. He joins the pod to share everything he learned in Atlanta and explain what happens next. Also on the podcast, Andrew talks about that rarest of things — a wealth firm going public. And Ian is back (sort of) with the lowdown on Ares’ first foray into buying equity in an RIA.
Andrew Foerch, Alec Rich and Alex Steger discuss a $129bn team's decision to ditch Merrill Lynch and set up an RIA with help from Dynasty and Schwab. The scale of the move is huge and so are its ramifications for all parties involved. Not least because Merrill has already filed a doozy of a lawsuit. Andrew, Alec and Alex get into it all. They also look at the perhaps surprising wind-down of Strive Wealth Management, which is shutting shop less than a year after its formal launch.
Ian Wenik, Andrew Foerch and Alex Steger discuss the latest evolution in Hightower's corporate strategy — to consolidate and centralize its affiliate advisors. The team explores the firm's motivation for doing this and what it says about the wider RIA market. They also analyze two major deals — Creative Planning's swoop for SageView and the Pritzker Org's Wellspring stake — and catch up on Andrew and Ian's time at last week's Future Proof conference.
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