This week about 500 people, mostly RIAs and their vendor allies (fundsters included), gathered at Miami Beach's famous Fontainebleau hotel for the eighth annual MarketCounsel Summit. Here are a few glimpses of how it all went down.

The RIAs take Miami

It's almost party time on opening night

The mini booths of MarketCounsel are waiting.

Welcome to the party!

Live music

The MarketCounsel Mermaid?

Correction: one of two MarketCounsel mermaids!

RIAs line up at the bar, next to ... a giant white ball?

Anyone up for a fresh, hand-rolled cigar?

A digital caricaturist captures an attendee's likeness. That likeness is then printed and put into a lanyard as a kind of alternate name badge ... a face badge?

It's time to get this conference started!

Brian Hamburger, president and CEO of MarketCounsel, gets the crowd revved up.

Around the Horn opening panel, featuring four "MarketCounselors" From left: Sharron Ash, chief litigation counsel; Andy Wels, chief regulatory counsel; Kristen Niebuhr, director of practical compliance; and David Mrazik, managing director

Sanjiv Mirchandani President of Fidelity Clearing and Custody

Kevin Keller CEO of the CFP Board

Bill Crager president of Envestnet

CNN's Ana Navarro (center) interviews famed political strategists Karl Rove (left) and David Plouffe (right).

MarketCounsel's chief regulatory, Andy Wels (left), interviews Norm Champ (center), ex head of the SEC's division of investment management and now a lecturer at Harvard Law, and Troy Paredes (right), ex SEC commissioner who now has a consulting firm

My Best Advice panel Pictured, from left to right: Andy Putterman, CEO of 1812 Park (known for founding Fortigent), moderator of the panel; Brian Hamburger, president and CEO of MarketCounsel; Marty Bicknell, CEO of Mariner Holdings (parent of Mariner Wealth Advisors and Montage Investments); and Shirl Penney, founder and CEO of Dynasty Financial Partners

No affiliation with Apple?

Four recruiters question four custodians. The four recruiters are, from the left: Mark Albers, president and CEO, Albers and Associates Consulting; Ryan Shanks, founder and CEO, Finetooth Consulting; Danny Sarch, owner, Leitner Sarch Consultants; and Mindy Diamond, president, Diamond Consultants

Four custodians answer questions from those four recruiters. The four custodians are, from the left: Bill Van Law, president of the investment advisors division at Raymond James; Bob Oros, executive vice president and head of the RIA segment at Fidelity Clearing and Custody; Andy Kalbaugh, managing director and divisional president of institution services at LPL; and Mark Tibergien, CEO and managing director of Pershing Advisor Solutions

M&A panel From the left: David Mrazik, MarketCounsel, managing director (moderator); Liz Nesvold, Silver Lane Advisors, managing partner; and Bob Thornton, First Republic Private Wealth, president

David DeVoe managing partner of DeVoe & Company

As the crowd enjoys lunch, MarketCounsel director compliance counsel Daniel Bernstein (left) interviews Rick Fleming, the SEC's first ever investor advocate

Ed Butowsky, sans Cliff Floyd and Keith McCants Floyd and McCants, pro athlete clients of Buyowsky, ended up not being able to make it to the summit.

Marcia Wagner, president and founder of the Wagner Law Group, talks ERISA.

Catch His Session If You Can Frank Abagnale, the famed reformed con artist who has since made a career helping out the FBI

It's time to open up your wallets for a good cause

You can bid in the silent auction.

Or you can bid in the live auction.

Inorganic Growth workshop From left: David Mrazik, managing director, MarketCounsel; and Sharron Ash, chief litigation counsel, MarketCounsel

Diminished Capacity workshop From left: Mrazik (see the previous picture's caption) and Ed Slezak, managing director and general counsel at MarketCounsel

Marketing Compliance workshop From the left: Rich Chen, regulatory counsel at MarketCounsel; and Dan Bernstein, chief compliance counsel, MarketCounsel

Thanks, sponsors!

Also at the Fountainebleau this week

Time to go home See you next December, when MarketCounsel will be back here at Fontainebleau again.

 

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