Robinhood raises $320 million along path to IPO

Robinhood raises $320 million along path to IPO

Discount brokerage Robinhood raised $320 million as part of its Series F round, bringing its valuation to $8.6 billion. The company in May raised $280 million as part of the same round, signaling investor confidence in its growth and IPO prospects.

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Goldman-owned Ayco expands financial marketplace for employers

Goldman-owned Ayco expands financial marketplace for employers

Ayco, a Goldman Sachs-owned financial company serving employers, expanded its product marketplace for employees this week, encompassing annuities, investment accounting, and tax services.

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Discovery Data’s Bob Skea on Finding Answers in Data and Technology

Discovery Data’s Bob Skea on Finding Answers in Data and Technology

Asset managers, wealth managers, insurance companies, and fintechs say they want data. But in reality, what they really want is answers.

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A Tech-Infused Wealth Management Advisor Offering Human-Infused Advice

A Tech-Infused Wealth Management Advisor Offering Human-Infused Advice

Personal Capital offers a free dashboard where users can pull together all their financial accounts for a holistic view of their assets and liabilities. CEO Jay Shah discusses the company’s notable growth during the past 16 months.

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Supporting Human Wealth Managers in a Digital Age

Supporting Human Wealth Managers in a Digital Age

What’s the future of human wealth managers in an age of passive investing, ETFs, and robo advisors? Joe Mrak, global head of wealth management at Refinitiv, says data and analytics will allow the next generation of tech-savvy wealth managers to add value and remain relevant.

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R.I.P. Wall Street Robo-Advisors

R.I.P. Wall Street Robo-Advisors

News of the robo-advisor’s death may be premature. But they’ll soon be under the same pressure to outperform the market as the humans they’re replacing.

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Survey Says: Let’s Get Digital, Digital

Survey Says: Let’s Get Digital, Digital

It seems a tired trope to say that financial advisors need to invest more in digital, but the fact remains that many advisory firms still lack the robust tech experience their younger investors want.

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Dan Houlihan on Asset Owners’ In-Housing Investment Decisions

Dan Houlihan on Asset Owners’ In-Housing Investment Decisions

The Head of Asset Servicing, Americas at Northern Trust discusses the trend toward bringing investment decisions in-house. The reasons relate to fees, controls, efficiencies, and investment performance. Funny, isn’t it, since those sound much like the rationale for outsourcing?

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RIAs in for a Fight over Forthcoming Trillions

RIAs in for a Fight over Forthcoming Trillions

Consolidation continues to rise in the RIA industry. And further consolidation means trillions of dollars up for grabs.

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The Great RIA Acquire-Fest

The Great RIA Acquire-Fest

The number of RIA firms is exploding. Organic growth is playing a role, but M&A is an even larger contributor to this trend.

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Robo-Advisors Lose Luster

Robo-Advisors Lose Luster

Robo-advisors were once all the rage in the world of fintech and digital financial services. But has the luster worn off?

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Vox Populi? Maybe Not for Hedge Funds

Vox Populi? Maybe Not for Hedge Funds

Hedge funds have long been closed off to the average retail investor. But so-called “hedge funds for the masses” — pooled funds that use hedge fund-like strategies — had been growing in recent years. That is, until now.

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Tech for the Ultra-High-Net-Worth Client

Tech for the Ultra-High-Net-Worth Client

The prevailing sentiment for years has been that tech tools in wealth management are primarily designed for the mass affluent. These are clients who don’t need to meet with an adviser regularly and can use automated digital services for much of their needs. But for high-net-worth clients, the human touch was still needed, the thinking went.exaggerated. Still, the old days of banks just plastering new branches everywhere as if they were billboards are surely over.

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From Human to Robo-Advisers (and Back Again)

From Human to Robo-Advisers (and Back Again)

Is Merrill Guided Investing the land where robots and humans exist happily side by side?

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Investment Advisors Embrace Technology

Investment Advisors Embrace Technology

While the wealthtech revolution has largely been centered around robo advisors and bringing more “entry-level” investors into the market, independent advisory firms have tended to focus on building relationships, advisor productivity, and other factors. But that’s all beginning to change.

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