Today is the 25th anniversary of first trade for the United States' first (and still biggest) ETF: SSgA's SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY). (This comes a week after the 25th anniversary of the $306.5-billion ETF's launch date.)

Also today, Dale Brown and his team are kicking off the Financial Services Institute's (FSI's) 2018 OneVoice conference. The three-day conference for independent broker-dealers is being held at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Dallas and is sponsored by Broadridge, Fidelity, and BNY Mellon's, Pershing. Speakers scheduled to take the stage include: Jeremy Gutsche, CEO of TrendHunter.com; David Knoch, president of 1st Global; Robert Moore, CEO of Cetera Financial Group; James Poer, president and CEO of Kestra Financial; Mel Robbins, CNN commentator; John Rooney, managing principal of Commonwealth Financial Network; and many others.

Tomorrow morning in New York City DAI Partners will host "Tearing Down the Pink Wall: Perspectives from Women Portfolio Managers and Outlooks for Equities, Bonds and the Economy". The event, which will be held at the Coffee House in midtown Manhattan, will feature: Yana Barton, vice president and PM on the growth team at Eaton Vance; Maria Fiori Ramirez, chairwoman of MFR Securities; and Anne Walsh, chief investment officer of fixed income at Guggenheim.

Mark Mobius, executive chairman of Franklin Templeton's Templeton Emerging Markets Group, will retire on Wednesday, even as Franklin is buying an absolute return global equity shop.

Also on Wednesday, TD Ameritrade Institutional president Tom Nally and his team will kick off their giant 2018 national LINC (Learn Inspire Network Collaborate) conference for RIAs. The four-day event is being held at the Hyatt Regency Orlando and features as sponsors a veritable who's who of RIA-friendly vendors and asset managers big and small, including: Aberdeen Standard; BlackRock; Capital Group; DFA; First Trust; Northern Trust's FlexShares; Invesco's PowerShares; State Street Global Advisors; T. Rowe Price; Vanguard; WisdomTree; and a host of others. Keynote speakers on the agenda include: Eurasia Group president and founder Ian Bremmer; Pandit Dasa, author and inspirational speaker; Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis; Joe Duran, founding partner and CEO of United Capital; Ric Edelman, executive chairman of Edelman Financial Services; Daniella Fava, director of product strategy and development at TD Ameritrade Institutional; Adena Friedman, president and CEO of Nasdaq; Marc Goodman, global technology strategist and author; Tim Hockey, president and CEO of all of TD Ameritrade; Nally himself; April Rinne, speaker and business advisor on the sharing economy; Vijay Sankaran, chief information officer of TD Ameritrade; Jeremy Siegel, professor of finance at the Wharton School of UPenn; and Lex Sokolin, director of fintech strategy at Autonomous Research.

On Thursday night in New York City, Frank Heavey and his Expect Miracles Foundation (Financial Services Against Cancer) team will host the fourth annual Expect Miracles in Manhattan gala. For a second year in a row, the sold out business cocktail event will be held at the Edison Ballroom in midtown. Margaret Flynn-Martin, managing director of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, and John Pavese, managing director and head of relationship at Merrill Lynch, are co-chairs of the event.

See industry events from last week.

This in the defined contribution industry, Ascensus is closing on its ninth acquisition of the past year. Our sister publication 401kWire has more details. 

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