The association you seldom hear about - the Alliance of Comprehensive Planners (ACP) - is now at the center of several trends in the profession—and reaching out to new members. The ACP’s training and mentoring makes it possible for career changers, tax preparers and former CFP students to rapidly build the necessary skills to profitably offer professional advice.

Its training has been modernized and made more accessible to a wider audience, and the tax-oriented planning organization with a reputation for flat fee billing is actively recruiting new members. “We’ve trained a lot of advisors over the past 30 years,” says Wesley Stien, founder of Lodestar Financial Management in Arlington, VA, who is ACP’s immediate past president. “But for a long time, our training program was in binders. The world has changed a lot since then, and we decided that we wanted to catch up.”

The ACP provides training to career changers who want to build a sustainable business, and new advisors who want a proven system to provide advice and service. The ACP model of financial planning includes seven core concepts that the community uses with clients and in their business practices. The original iteration of ACP required advisors to charge directly for their services. It's still the home of many non-AUM advisory firms.​

Originally published in Bob Veres' Inside Information in February 2026. Read full article here.
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*Used with permission from Inside Information (Bob Veres publisher): Get a full subscription at www.BobVeres.com.

Critical minerals refer to a broad category of raw materials (including minerals, elements, and other substances) that are crucial to modern industrial activity. Of particular interest are rare earth elements, a group of seventeen metallic elements that are essential to industries such as electronics, batteries, defense and satellite systems, medical technologies, and energy. In this piece, Syntax Data explores the investment performance of companies involved in the extraction and processing of critical minerals, finding that those with higher risk characteristics have outperformed recently.

​​In 2025, The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed a list of critical minerals, 15 of which are rare earth elements, that are both essential to the nation’s economic activity and whose supply chains are vulnerable to disruption, either due to geopolitical factors, trade policy, or rapidly increasing global demand. The list was derived from an initial set of 84 mineral commodities, which were ranked according to their economic importance and likelihood of trade disruption. Each commodity was assigned a risk probability weighting, calculated by multiplying the likelihood of a trade disruption scenario by the impact of that scenario, and proposed for inclusion on the final list if the risk probability was classified as high, elevated, or moderate.
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Originally published by Syntax Data on January 22, 2026. Read full article here.

BX Partners, a research-driven investment consulting platform serving chief investment officers (CIOs), financial advisors, registered investment advisers (RIAs), and broker-dealers, today announced the launch of BX Risk Shield (TM), a real-time market sentiment and trend-monitoring system. BX Risk Shield is designed to help financial institutions and investment advisory firms navigate market uncertainty and make more informed risk-allocation decisions. This new open architecture solution helps investment firms interpret market signals, manage portfolio risk with discipline, and clearly communicate decisions to clients – and it is free to use, no strings attached.

BX Risk Shield addresses one of the most persistent challenges facing the financial services industry today: knowing when to increase, decrease, or maintain portfolio risk amid constant geopolitical headlines, economic noise, and emotionally driven market narratives. Rather than relying on hunches or single-manager opinions, BX Risk Shield delivers a rules-based framework that translates complex market signals into a clear, actionable view of overall market conditions.

Originally posted on Business Wire on January 20, 2026. Read the full article here.

Claire J. Alexander, the respected operations strategist and trusted advisor behind some of the financial services industry’s most aggressive AUM expansion arcs — including assisting advisors in scaling firms from $100M to $3.5B in just three years — has announced The Billion Dollar Firm Trifecta Masterclass. This exclusive intensive is designed for financial advisory leaders navigating the complexity that comes with accelerated firm expansion.
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The Billion Dollar Firm Trifecta Masterclass is set for January 20, 2026. The 180-minute virtual masterclass is designed as a senior-level conversation focused on the decisions, structures, and leadership shifts required to scale thoughtfully and sustainably. The session culminates in the final segment, where the Trifecta — Architecture, Authority, and Alignment — is fully integrated into a cohesive roadmap for durable, permanent growth.

Originally posted on Business Wire on January 6, 2026. Read the full article here.

T3’s Technology Conference for financial professionals, which is widely known as the wealth management industry’s most established and trusted technology event, will debut T3 AI University at its 2026 conference. AI University will deliver a bold, immersive learning experience designed to help investment advisors, financial planners, and wealth management professionals cut through AI hype and turn insights into action.

Guided by the 2026 theme, “From Noise to Knowledge: The FinTech Playbook for 2026 and Beyond,” the new AI University will take place the first day of the conference, March 9, 2026. AI University offers attendees the insights and information they need to gain a strategic advantage as they move from noise to knowledge in their hyper-competitive fields. Highly-accomplished faculty members will provide practical AI implementation advice and demonstrations (not just high-level talks) for the full day, with concurrent tracks running to ensure that every level of interest and key themes are covered.

​Originally posted on Business Wire on December 23, 2025. Read the full article here.

​Myriad Advisor Solutions (Myriad) announced a new partnership with Content 151 designed to give breakaway advisory firms access to customized blog content and marketing support. Their first joint product, the Custom Blog Program, will be available to firms starting in 2026. Myriad has long-supported independent advisors seeking to build dynamic firms. As more advisors seek independence, Myriad continues to evolve its offerings to help new firms compete; that encompasses everything from strategic business planning and cybersecurity to brand building.

For the Custom Blog Program, Content 151 developed a “mini library” of content exclusively for Myriad clients. Participating firms can select ten topics to fully customize. With minimal time and effort, advisors will get a ready-to-launch blog that reflects their message, target clients, and approach to asset management. The product is designed to help advisors stay competitive as AI continues to rewrite the rules around search.

Originally posted on Business Wire on December 9, 2025. Read the full article here.