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Indie HD Vest Bought by Blucora, Maker of TaxACT, for $580M

23:48 14 October in In the News by rafferty

October 14, 2015 By Janet Levaux, ThinkAdvisor   The tax-software firm hopes to boost business by aligning with the indie broker-dealer, which has about 4,500 reps HD Vest, which has about 4,500 affiliated independent-contractor advisors, is being sold to Blucora (BCOR), the company formerly called InfoSpace and maker of the TaxACT tax-preparation software, for about $580 million. The deal is expected to close either late this year or early next year. For the past four years, HD Vest has been owned by an private equity investor group led by Parthenon Capital Partners; the group includes Lovell Minnick Partners and Fisher Lynch. “Part of the reason they wanted to partner with HD has to do with unlocking the value of their 5.5 million customers who do tax returns with TaxACT each year,” said HD Vest President and...

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Tax Prep Software Firm Blucora Buys HD Vest for $580 Million

16:44 14 October in In the News by rafferty

October 14, 2015 By Megan Leonhart, WealthManagement.com   The owner of tax preparation software TaxACT on Wednesday agreed to purchase tax-centric broker/dealer HD Vest Financial Services for $580 million. Under the terms of the agreement, BluCora will acquire the parent company of privately-held HD Vest. Previously, the Irving, Texas-based broker/dealer—which has 4,500 advisors who manage $36 billion in client assets—was owned by an investor group led by Parthenon Capital Partners and includes Lovell Minnick Partners and Fisher Lynch. HD Vest will continue to operate as a stand-alone entity under its current brand, with Roger Ochs, president and CEO of the firm, maintaining his current role. “With Blucora, we have found a partner who recognizes the value-creating potential in our size, scale and robust growth prospects, and who will provide HD Vest the advantages of operating within...

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What’s Next for LPL, Marcato & Casady?

15:51 07 October in In the News by rafferty

October 6, 2015 By Janet Levaux, ThinkAdvisor   With active investor Richard McGuire snapping at its heels, the independent broker-dealer may have to up its game LPL Financial (LPLA) experts share regular forecasts on market trends and strategy. These days, outsiders are busy predicting what could happen over the next year or so two weeks after the hedge fund group Marcato Capital took a 6.3% stake in the independent broker-dealer. UBS downgraded its rating on LPL last week, helping to push its stock price down to about $36. It now trades near $39, down from its 52-week high of roughly $48. “LPL’s stock price has languished,” said Chip Roame, head of Tiburon Strategic Advisors, a research and consulting group. That downward trend in its equity price may have prompted Marcato, which is led by Richard McGuire,...

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The Dumbing Down of the Financial Services Industry’s Future

16:15 14 September in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

September 11, 2015 By Jon Henschen, as published on ThinkAdvisor   To listen to the Department of Education and the laments of public school system officials you may be left with the impression that our schools are impoverished and can only survive by cutting arts and sports programs in order to stay within budget. Statistics point out a different reality: while we now spend private-school amounts on public school students, performance results are getting worse, not better. As I’ll argue later on, this decreasing performance has big implications for our industry. For now, let’s start by addressing the overall performance issue using the chart below: Spending More and Getting Less Since 1970, K-12 spending has gone up astronomically (from approximately $55,000 per student to $165,000) while test scores have remained flat or gone down.The author of the Cato...