By Kenneth Corbin

Jefferies Financial and UBS say they could be on the hook for billions of dollars from their involvement with First Brands, a troubled auto-parts supplier that filed for bankruptcy last month. Jefferies' exposure comes from a large investment that one of its asset managers made in First Brands customer invoices, which the company stopped repaying in September. UBS, for its part, reportedly holds more than $500 million in First Brands financing. On Wednesday, a major creditor, Raistone, filed an emergency motion for an independent investigation into $2.3 billion in short-term financing it says has "simply vanished."

Among other most-read wealth management articles this week:

      Where does this bank merger leave Ameriprise?   Fifth Third Bancorp's planned acquisition of Comerica would create the country's ninth-largest bank, but it could also have a ripple effect that could weigh on another large financial services firm. Both banks have wealth management divisions, but Comerica works with Ameriprise Financial for brokerage services, while Fifth Third handles those operations in-house. That raises the prospect that the $18 billion that Comerica advisors oversee on Ameriprise's platform could eventually flow into the combined entity, whose wealth businesses Fifth Third says it plans to merge. 

BlackRock's new AI play . BlackRock is adding an artificial intelligence feature to its Aladdin Wealth portfolio management platform, and it is going to market with a major client -- Morgan Stanley. The new Auto Commentary feature synthesizes data from Aladdin's risk and data analytics, the market outlook of the client firm's CIO, and specifics about individual clients' portfolios and investment objectives. It then produces talking points advisors can use in conversations with clients about potential adjusting the weighting and asset baskets in their portfolios.

Strapped for cash, retirement looking grim . A new report from Goldman Sachs paints a gloomy picture of Americans' readiness for retirement, with 40% of working Americans living paycheck to paycheck. As younger Americans find it harder to save for their future, the overall cost of retirement has been outpacing inflation, increasing 4% a year for 2 1/2 decades. A Goldman executive concludes that those factors call into question whether the conventional, savings-driven retirement math still works.

Are ultrarich clients worth it? It is easy to see why investment advisors are increasingly trying to attract ultrahigh-net-worth clients with comprehensive family office services, offering everything from wealth management to bill paying to arranging for the purchase of a private airplane. With those clients' investible assets typically running $20 million or higher per family, the business case for taking a cut of that money as a management fee is straightforward, but are all the firms chasing this market -- and there has been a recent surge -- really ready to deliver the services those clients expect?

A 26-year-old CFP tells his story . For all the worries about an aging financial advisor industry and the need for younger blood, it can be easy to overlook what it actually takes to break into the business and build a client base with next to no experience. Our guest columnist, 26, shares his story about struggling to find an in, then getting hired by Douglas Boneparth, an advisor with an outsize social media presence, and methodically establishing himself.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 10, 2025 15:59 ET (19:59 GMT)

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