The Industry’s Biggest Developments This Month
September brought another consequential month for the wealth management industry.
Major firms expanded into new businesses, significant advisor teams continued moving toward independence, technology-focused wealth platforms attracted substantial capital, and competition intensified in one of the most important—and traditionally concentrated—parts of the RIA ecosystem: custody.
Taken together, these developments point toward an industry that is becoming both larger and more interconnected.
The emerging competitive landscape is no longer simply about which firm manages the most assets. Increasingly, it is about which organizations can assemble the strongest combination of advisors, technology, investment capabilities, custody infrastructure and sophisticated services for affluent and ultra-high-net-worth clients.
Here are six developments BKLM believes are worth watching.
1. Creative Planning Moves to Acquire an Institutional Consultant Advising on $4.3 Trillion
One of September’s most striking announcements came from Creative Planning.
The firm announced plans to acquire RVK, an institutional investment consulting business that advises on approximately $4.3 trillion in assets.
The scale of the assets involved makes the announcement notable, but the strategic implications may be even more important.
Creative Planning has grown into one of the country’s largest independent wealth-management organizations. Adding a major institutional consulting capability represents another expansion of what a modern wealth-management organization can encompass.
BKLM Perspective
The boundaries separating private wealth management, institutional consulting, retirement services and asset management continue to become less distinct.
For advisors, this matters because larger platforms increasingly compete based on the breadth of resources available behind the individual advisor.
The question is gradually shifting from:
“How large is the firm?”
to:
“What can the platform actually do for advisors and their clients?”
Investment research, tax planning, institutional capabilities, alternatives, estate planning resources and technology are increasingly becoming pieces of the same competitive equation.
2. State Street Enters the RIA Custody Market
Another important September development occurred behind the scenes of the advisory business.
State Street officially launched an RIA custody offering.
Custody is fundamental infrastructure for independent advisors. Client assets, trading, reporting, technology integrations and many daily operational functions depend upon the custodian supporting the RIA.
Historically, the market has been dominated by a relatively small group of very large providers.
State Street’s entrance introduces another major financial institution into that ecosystem.
BKLM Perspective
More custody competition could ultimately be significant for independent advisors.
Competition has the potential to encourage greater investment in technology, service, integrations and advisor-facing capabilities.
It also reflects something larger.
Major financial institutions continue seeing the independent advisory channel as an attractive long-term market.
As independent firms become larger and more sophisticated, the infrastructure supporting them is becoming an increasingly valuable business in its own right.
3. Large Advisor Teams Continue Choosing Independence
September also produced another significant independent breakaway.
A large Ameriprise team announced the launch of an independent RIA with support from Dynasty Financial Partners. Reporting on the move described a multi-office organization with roughly 40 advisors and several billion dollars in client assets.
Another Ameriprise team managing approximately $1.3 billion also launched an independent RIA during September.
BKLM Perspective
We cover individual recruiting moves more extensively in our Advisor Movement Watch, but these transactions are relevant here because of what they demonstrate about the broader industry structure.
Independence is increasingly capable of supporting organizations that would once have required the infrastructure of a major brokerage firm.
Technology, outsourced investment platforms, independent custodians, compliance resources and organizations such as Dynasty have helped build an ecosystem capable of supporting increasingly large advisory businesses.
That doesn’t mean independence is right for every advisor.
It does mean the range of viable affiliation models available to successful advisory teams continues to expand.
4. AlphaCore Makes a $5 Billion Family-Office Move
AlphaCore Wealth Advisory announced the acquisition of Streamline Global Group, a firm overseeing approximately $5 billion, as part of an expansion into family-office services.
The development is another example of firms moving further upstream into sophisticated wealth management.
BKLM Perspective
“Family office” is becoming an increasingly important part of the competitive landscape for firms serving ultra-high-net-worth households.
These clients frequently require much more than portfolio management.
Their needs can involve:
- Estate and tax coordination
- Private investments
- Business interests
- Trust structures
- Philanthropy
- Multi-generational planning
- Family governance
- Consolidated reporting
- Risk management
That creates an important distinction.
Serving a wealthy household and building an organization capable of coordinating a wealthy family’s entire financial life are not necessarily the same business.
Firms that successfully develop these capabilities may be able to deepen relationships with their largest and most complex clients.
5. Savvy Wealth Raises $100 Million
Technology-enabled RIA Savvy Wealth announced a $100 million Series C funding round, bringing its reported valuation to approximately $600 million.
The capital raise is noteworthy because Savvy represents a newer generation of wealth-management organizations built with technology deeply integrated into the operating model.
BKLM Perspective
Technology is increasingly moving from a support function to a fundamental component of firm strategy.
The traditional advisory business often assembled technology over time: one CRM, one portfolio system, one planning tool and numerous additional applications connected together.
Newer organizations have an opportunity to design workflows around integrated technology from the beginning.
The competitive question is therefore becoming less about whether an advisory firm has technology.
Almost everyone does.
The more meaningful question is whether technology actually makes advisors more productive, improves the client experience and allows the organization to scale without creating proportional increases in administrative complexity.
6. Vanguard’s Altruist Deal Raises Bigger Questions About the RIA Ecosystem
Vanguard’s agreement to acquire custody and wealth-technology provider Altruist continued generating discussion among RIA executives during September.
Some industry leaders have questioned what happens when major investment and advice providers also control important pieces of the technology and custody infrastructure used by independent advisors.
Others see additional investment by organizations such as Vanguard as a potential catalyst for innovation and competition throughout the industry.
BKLM Perspective
The most interesting part of this story may be what it says about the value of advisor infrastructure.
Custody, technology, asset management and financial advice have traditionally occupied distinct parts of the industry.
Those lines are becoming less clear.
The organizations controlling the infrastructure advisors use every day may increasingly influence how advisory firms operate, what products they access and how efficiently they serve clients.
That makes platform selection an increasingly strategic decision for RIA owners.
What This Means for Advisors
September’s developments reinforce several themes worth watching.
- Independence continues evolving. Larger and increasingly sophisticated teams can now operate outside traditional brokerage structures.
- Custody is becoming competitive territory. State Street’s entry and Vanguard’s Altruist transaction demonstrate growing strategic interest in RIA infrastructure.
- Family-office capabilities are expanding. Firms serving UHNW households continue broadening their services beyond traditional portfolio management.
- Technology is becoming part of the business model. Capital continues flowing toward organizations attempting to build more efficient, technology-enabled advisory platforms.
- Scale increasingly means capabilities. The largest organizations are assembling combinations of wealth management, institutional investing, technology and specialized services rather than simply accumulating AUM.
BKLM Takeaway
September’s biggest advisor and firm developments reveal an industry being rebuilt around platform capabilities.
Creative Planning is expanding further into institutional investment consulting.
State Street is entering RIA custody.
Large advisor teams continue testing the possibilities of independence.
Family-office capabilities are expanding.
Technology-driven wealth platforms continue attracting significant investment.
And organizations such as Vanguard are moving deeper into the infrastructure supporting independent advisors.
The common thread is important.
The competitive advantage of an advisory firm increasingly extends beyond the individual advisor.
Clients still ultimately hire and retain people they trust. That remains at the center of the advisory relationship.
But behind that advisor, the quality of the platform increasingly matters.
Technology. Investment resources. Custody. Planning capabilities. Alternatives. Family-office services. Operational support. And the ability to continually adapt as client expectations change.
For advisors evaluating where they want to build the next stage of their careers—and for firm owners thinking about the next decade of their businesses—the increasingly important question may be:
Does my platform make it easier for me to become a better advisor and build a better business?
September’s industry news suggests more firms are competing aggressively to make the answer yes.