Enjoy the current installment of "weekend reading for financial planners" – this week's edition kicks off with a slew of announcements about major broker-dealer mergers and acquisitions, including LPL acquiring National Planning Holdings (and its four subsidiary broker-dealers) from Jackson National, Kestra acquiring H. Beck from Securian and Minnesota Life, and Cetera folding in Girard Securities from being an independent subsidiary broker-dealer into a regional super-OSJ instead... a sign that as DoL fiduciary implementation looms large, broker-dealers are feeling the pressure to merge for economies of scale, and insurers are simplifying their distribution by eliminating their captive broker-dealers altogether!
We also have several compliance-related news and articles this week, including the SEC's latest Risk Alert regarding the results of its Cybersecurity initiative for broker-dealers and RIAs, a separate announcement from the SEC that RIAs can delay some of the new Form ADV updates if they have any intra-year amendments to make after October 1st (though all RIAs will still need to comply when annual ADV season rolls around next spring!), and a look at what RIAs need to remember when hiring a new (experienced) advisor and going through the registration and compliance process of onboarding.
There are also a few advisor technology articles, including a look at the new technology initiatives rolling out from the leading RIA custodians as "advisor FinTech" becomes the primary differentiator for custodians, a look at the latest updates of the Capitect client portal (and increasingly, performance reporting and rebalancing) software, and a review of the Folio Connexion (AcX) platform that advisors can use to create their own white-labeled "robo-advisor-for-advisors" solution.
And given the summer vacation season, we wrap up with three articles all focused on how to better maximize your own vacation enjoyment: the first looks at whether a mandatory scheduled vacation policy is better than a flexible or open vacation policy when it comes to actually boosting employee creativity, productivity, and happiness; the second looks at why a 2-week vacation isn't actually any better than a 1-week vacation when it comes to boosting happiness; and the last provides some (research-backed) tips and tactics about how to actually maximize the happiness of your vacation experience... for those who still have a little summer vacation left, or perhaps are already beginning to look forward to their winter holiday vacations instead!
Enjoy the "light" reading!