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?