A provision in Trump’s tax bill could make donor-advised funds an even more popular form of giving. Donor-advised funds, or DAFs, are accounts where donors can contribute funds, immediately get a tax deduction, and “advise” on where to donate — and they are becoming increasingly popular. As Daniel Heist, a professor at Brigham Young University and a lead researcher on the 2025 National Survey of DAF Donors, put it, “they’re growing like crazy.” Donors can contribute non-cash assets, like appreciated securities or crypto, to DAFs, and the funds grow over time. Technically, donors don’t control the funds in their DAF, but practically speaking, they can direct the money to any accredited charity. “As long as you’re following the rules of the DAF provider, you should always have those recommendations honored,” Mitch Stein, the head of strategy at Chariot, a technology company focused on DAFs, said. Private foundations have to distribute at least 5% of their assets annually for charitable purposes, but DAFs don’t have payout requirements. Donors also don’t report their gifts to individual organizations on their taxes, and instead report that they gave to the DAF.
Robinhood’s acquisition of Bitstamp crypto exchange to enable it to expand exposure in global crypto market to over 5,000 institutional clients
Robinhood Markets, Inc. has formally concluded its acquisition of Bitstamp, one of the world’s oldest and most reputable cryptocurrency exchanges, in a $200M deal. The transaction, which was unveiled in June 2024, was finalized on May 2, 2025, and was 100% cash-financed. This purchase will be a major move in Robinhood’s ambition to expand its exposure in the worldwide crypto market. Bitstamp has a history of catering to institutional clients. It now serves over 5,000 institutional clients and some 50,000 retail customers. And it gets a lot of trading from its institutional base, a category Robinhood didn’t have until now. Through its acquisition of Bitstamp, Robinhood will soon have access to a reliable platform with more than a decade of experience, significant liquidity, and a proven security and compliance track record. Robinhood Crypto general manager Johann Kerbrat said the acquisition would enable the company to scale faster and expand its crypto offerings to more people in the US and globally. Robinhood is not ruling out additional crypto acquisitions if they can help accelerate the company’s growth, adding that any opportunity to advance by 18 months or two years would be considered. The purchase also includes over 50 operational licenses and licenses-to-be in Europe, the UK, Asia, and the US, enabling Robinhood to do business in many new markets legally.
Fidelity’s new Managed Futures ETF to offer a liquid, alternative strategy by capitalizing on price trends in a broad set of markets through disciplined, systematic long-short investing
Fidelity Investments announced the launch of Fidelity Managed Futures ETF (FFUT), a liquid alternative strategy that aims to capitalize on market trends through disciplined, systematic long-short investing. FFUT is listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC and available commission-free for individual investors and financial advisors through Fidelity’s online brokerage platforms. “The new managed futures strategy is designed to provide clients with an investment option that can help diversify their portfolios with the ease of an ETF wrapper,” said Roberto Croce, portfolio manager of Fidelity Managed Futures ETF at Fidelity Investments. “Fidelity’s robust quantitative research, sophisticated investment capabilities, and disciplined investment process help us provide a differentiated strategy.” FFUT seeks capital appreciation across market regimes, while aiming to provide especially attractive risk adjusted returns during periods of equity market drawdowns. In an effort to achieve its investment objective, the fund pursues a strategy intended to capture the persistence of price trends (up and/or down) in a broad set of markets — including equities, fixed income, currencies and commodities — utilizing futures, forwards and other derivatives. The ETF is competitively priced with an estimated gross expense ratio of 0.83% and estimated net expense ratio of 0.80%.
SOLVE’s AI-driven pricing tool for bond markets blends crowd-sourced bids and offers from market participants and over 300 feature inputs derived from reference, trade and quote data to offer predictive, real-time trade-level pricing
SOLVE has launched SOLVE Px for the Corporate Bond Market, a new AI-driven pricing tool for the high-yield (HY) and investment-grade (IG) corporate bond markets. Covering over 100,000 corporate bonds with industry-leading precision, SOLVE Px provides predictive trade-level pricing that helps traders and portfolio managers act with greater confidence. SOLVE Px is designed to support fixed income professionals who need to make quick, well-informed decisions in often illiquid markets. Built on AI models trained with over 300 feature inputs, including SOLVE’s proprietary quote data, the tool delivers pricing that dynamically adjusts to reflect evolving market conditions, enabling buy-side and sell-side users to uncover trade opportunities, manage risk, and refine execution strategies. Delivered via the SOLVE Quotes web application, FTP and FIX feeds, and soon through APIs and Excel add-in, the solution enhances transparency and pricing accuracy by integrating two core components: 1) SOLVE Quotes™ – crowd-sourced bids and offers from market participants, providing rich real-time pricing inputs: Real-time bid, mid, and offer levels delivered across 50,000+ daily securities and 20 million+ daily quotes. 2) AI-Generated Predictive Pricing – a fully machine learning-driven model trained on hundreds of inputs derived from reference data, trade data, and quote data. Together, these components provide a more comprehensive and actionable view of corporate bond pricing. Eugene Grinberg, CEO of SOLVE said “This offering provides real-time insight into the next likely trade level for both investment-grade and high-yield corporate bonds. With predictive pricing, we’re helping traders and PMs combine their market judgment with data-driven support to improve outcomes and capture opportunity faster.”
FINNY unveils intent search to help advisors pinpoint high-intent prospects faster based on real-time online behavior
FINNY the AI-powered prospecting and marketing platform built specifically for financial advisors, has launched Intent Search, a feature that allows advisors to identify and engage with prospects actively seeking financial guidance. Powered by 1.8 billion proprietary intent signals that are updated daily, it enables advisors to surface high-intent prospects based on real-time online behavior. Advisors can select keywords related to their services. FINNY identifies prospects who have recently researched those topics, pinpointing what they’re interested in and when they were actively searching. FINNY has also released its Prospect Enrichment and AI Voicemails features. Prospect Enrichment enables advisors to upload external contacts and automatically matches them to FINNY’s database. Meanwhile, AI Voicemails allow advisors to deliver ringless, personalized voicemails at scale. They can select from multiple voice options to suit their preferences, and messages are able to circumvent spam filters. Each voicemail can be paired with a follow-up email to create efficient outreach that retains a human touch. Since its launch, the Prospect Enrichment feature has already led to the upload and enrichment of more than 8,000 prospects, signaling strong demand and immediate value.
Zocks and eMoney launch AI-powered bi-directional bi-directional data sharing integration to eliminate manual data entry and maintenance in financial planning
Zocks announced a direct integration with eMoney Advisor (eMoney), provider of technology solutions and services that help people talk about money. This marks the first AI-powered, bi-directional integration between a client intelligence platform and eMoney’s financial planning solutions, aimed squarely at eliminating manual data entry and accelerating the planning process for financial advisors. Zocks automatically creates and maintains structured data from conversations, emails and CRM records for contacts. The integration’s bi-directional data sharing enables Zocks to use that information to populate and update ‘Facts’ data in eMoney, eliminating manual data entry. In return, relevant facts and plan data from eMoney can be utilized by Zocks’ AI Agents to support smarter meeting preparation and email responses. Luke White, Manager, Group Product Management, eMoney said “By reducing time spent on data entry, advisors can spend more time focusing on building meaningful client relationships and delivering high-quality financial plans.” Drew DiMarino, Chief Revenue Officer at Zocks said “By syncing structured data into and out of eMoney, we’re removing the burden of manual entry and giving advisors more time to engage meaningfully with clients, whether that’s uncovering new planning needs, preparing for complex reviews, or simply staying ahead of key life changes.”
The Financial Planning Association (FPA) launched a new behavior-based “Competency Model,” to help advisors develop their skills across — interpersonal impact, client communication and care, critical thinking, leadership, professionalism and advancing the profession
The Financial Planning Association (FPA) launched a new behavior-based “Competency Model,” a digital self-assessment and learning tool designed for financial planning professionals of all backgrounds. It is meant to help advisors develop their skills across six critical areas — interpersonal impact, client communication and care, critical thinking, leadership, professionalism and advancing the profession. The model’s tiered structure further develops these areas across career stages in foundational, intermediate and advanced levels of proficiency. Ben Lewis, chief communications officer for the FPA said, “The goal is to promote continuous learning, so the model is built around observable behaviors at foundational, intermediate and advanced levels. This offers a clear structure for development over time.” Although participation in the model is optional and not a requirement for FPA membership, Lewis said the learning tool is relevant for planners who wish to deepen client relationships and grow as professionals. Though the model is brand-new, it’s already garnering positive reactions. Melissa A. Caro, an FPA member and founder of the platform My Retirement Network, a digital media company, said because the learning modules emphasize the behavioral and interpersonal side of planning — in other words, the exact types of conversations that impact client trust, understanding and follow-through. The model brings clarity to the often-intangible skills that make a great planner and offers a roadmap for growth at every career stage, said Gregory Furer, who is also an FPA member and the founder and CEO of Pittsburgh-based Beratung Advisors.
Digital wealth platform Sidekick’s offering to offer mass affluents access to high-growth private companies through a professionally managed fund by investing just £10,000
Sidekick, a new UK digital wealth platform built to serve six-figure earners who’ve outgrown basic financial products but don’t have the millions needed to access private banks, has launched. Sidekick is one of a number of entrants targeting the mass affluent market, using technology to offer products and services once reserved for the super rich. Among Sidekick’s offerings is access to private equity-style investing for just £10,000. Eligible individuals can get access to a regulated Long-Term Asset Fund, which allows clients to invest in high-growth private companies through a professionally managed fund without needing the six-figure minimums usually required. Beyond investments, users get access to an account that automatically spreads deposits across a panel of UK-regulated banks behind the scenes, enabling up to £255,000 of FSCS protection – all through a single interface. And, for higher target returns, its Smart Cash product invests short-term funds into actively managed money market instruments, designed to outperform traditional savings rates while keeping funds accessible.
BBVA’s private bank is advising wealthy clients to invest 3% to 7% of their portfolio into cryptos, specifically in bitcoin and ether
BBVA is advising wealthy clients to invest up to 7% of their portfolio into cryptocurrencies, an executive said on Tuesday, in the latest sign some banks are warming to a sector long avoided by mainstream finance because of its risks. BBVA’s private bank advises clients to invest 3% to 7% of their portfolio in cryptocurrencies depending on their risk appetite, Philippe Meyer, head of digital & blockchain solutions at BBVA Switzerland. “With private customers, since September last year, we started advising on bitcoin,” Meyer said. “The riskier profile, we allow up to 7% of (portfolios in) crypto.” Meyer believes BBVA was one of the first large global banks to advise its wealthy clients to buy cryptocurrencies. It had been executing on client requests to buy them since 2021, he said. The 3-7% advice currently applies to bitcoin and ether, but BBVA plans to expand the advice to other cryptocurrencies later this year, he said. Meyer said that clients had been receptive so far to the advice, and dismissed concerns the asset was too risky. “If you look at a balanced portfolio, if you introduce 3% you already boost the performance,” Meyer said. “At 3% you are not taking a huge risk.”
Vanguard to split mutual funds and exchange-traded funds across two advisors to better handle growth-induced large fund size and alleviate risks associated with ownership caps in index-tracking stock funds
Vanguard announced plans to restructure the advisor responsible for managing its mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. It will form two new advisors, Vanguard Capital Management and Vanguard Portfolio Management, and split its funds across the two. Historically, all funds have been managed by a single advisor: The Vanguard Group. Vanguard Capital Management will manage all of Vanguard’s fixed-income and passive multi-asset funds, while Vanguard Portfolio Management will oversee its actively managed stock and multi-asset funds. Each advisor will take responsibility for a portion of Vanguard’s index-tracking stock funds. There are two big reasons Vanguard likely chose to do this. Its representatives cited the growth of its funds over the past several years. Their mammoth size now requires more focus than a single team could handle. That’s certainly true. Big funds, whether actively managed or index-tracking, often require more attention. Vanguard offers some of the largest, and it has grown its personnel alongside its funds. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index VTSAX and Vanguard 500 Index VFIAX both have more than $1 trillion invested in them, and it has many others with billions. The size of Vanguard’s funds points to another reason: The Vanguard Group owns a large chunk of all publicly traded stocks. In some instances, the ownership stakes are so large that they exceed the limits imposed by certain regulatory agencies. That means some of Vanguard’s index-tracking stock funds may have to cap their stakes in some stocks, and they may not track their target index as accurately as they had in the past. Likewise, it may restrict an active manager’s ability to express their best ideas. Vanguard acknowledged that risk in its funds’ prospectuses for the first time last year. So far, it has navigated those ownership limits by striking agreements with various regulators. Those agreements typically limit Vanguard’s engagement activities with the corresponding companies and allow its funds to maintain their large ownership stakes. The ownership stakes roll up to each advisor. So, splitting its funds across two advisors reduces each advisor’s ownership and further alleviates some of the related risks. Such measures aren’t unprecedented. Large asset managers like Capital Group and T. Rowe Price have already adopted similar multiadvisor structures for similar reasons. Vanguard splitting its funds across two advisors shouldn’t change the investment experience for its clients, and it doesn’t impact the investor-friendly mutual ownership structure that distinguishes Vanguard’s funds. The advisors will have their own managers and stewardship teams. In theory, that allows the advisors to take their own approaches to managing their index-tracking stock funds. In practice, the two advisors are still part of Vanguard, so the tools, processes, and culture should remain the same. Vanguard’s clients should continue to receive the same tight index-tracking that Vanguard has provided in the past.