Four financial stories we’re watching this week on AI, ETF share classes, digital assets and RIA M&A
We at Lowe Group are constantly thinking about the topics affecting our financial service clients. This week, we wanted to share a few articles we found worth reading.
In the firehose of information affecting financial communications leaders, these articles caught our attention. But of course, we have a few questions.
Is AI taking over financial services or the media?
The elephant in the room on everyone’s minds is AI and how it promises to change the financial industry and financial communications. We’ve watched market volatility spike when new AI tools are introduced, or reports suggest AI will take over aspects of financial services or other industries like coding. Two stories this week were startling.
First, Altruist announced news that as many as 1600 RIA firms signed up for its AI custodian Hazel, potentially threatening traditional custodians like Schwab, Fidelity and others. Will these AI tools achieve the kind of consistency and accuracy that financial customers demand? And how will the RIAs adopting these tools convince their customers to put their trust in their new AI back office?
Next, our minds were blown by this article in the Wall Street Journal about a Fortune reporter who filed more than 600 stories already this year using AI to support his reporting. We’ve argued that getting your people and products into the media read by AI engines is critical as AI transforms how your company and products get found. But we can’t help but wonder who is reading all of these AI-created articles beyond the AI search engines. Head scratch.
Where do we stand?
While AI is rapidly changing the industry, we and most of our clients are embracing tools that drive efficiency, reduce routine tasks, and get to genuine insight quickly. It feels like the early innings, and it's too early to declare winners and losers.
Have the ETF share classes arrived?
Yes! We’ve written about how we expect news of numerous share class launches in 2026. The first ETF share class of an existing Dimensional mutual fund began trading last week. Dimensional was the first to receive the share class exemptive relief, though many more firms have since been granted relief. We’ve written before about how we expect more traditional asset managers to explore ETF share classes. And as expected, Fidelity filed this week to add share classes to three of its mutual funds.
The tax benefits of the ETF structure apparently extend across all share classes making it a win-win for the other mutual fund share classes. What will all these impending launches mean? Financial communicators supporting share class and other ETF launches will need to be creative to define breakthrough strategies to drive attention. Read more recommendations for ETF sponsors to cut through the noise and make the most of their ETF share class launch.
Are digital assets moving into the mainstream?
On March 24, the New York Stock Exchange announced a partnership with Securitize to create tokenized versions of traditional financial securities. According to the NYSE release, “Securitize … will create blockchain-based securities for issuers of corporate and exchange-traded funds on an upcoming NYSE-affiliated Digital Trading Platform.”
While we still aren’t seeing wealth managers incorporating digital assets into the core of their portfolios just yet, we are seeing more bitcoin-linked products and blockchain related strategies getting attention. We’re paying attention and expect to see more mainstream firms bringing digital assets to market.
Can RIA valuations get any higher?
Did it feel like Groundhog Day to you when a report came out suggesting RIA valuations had reached yet another new high?
The continuing story of industry consolidation has been on repeat every year over the last few years and there is no sign of a slowdown. Many of the conversations we have with wealth managers revolve around growth through acquisition. We expect consolidation to continue as small firms see the benefit of the scale offered by consolidators and a large number of RIA firm founders looking to retire in the coming years.
We’ve written about how PR can support positioning firms as trusted partners for founders seeking to sell or announcing deals in a way that drives awareness of a firm’s growth strategy. That’s not going to stop either.
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