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March 01, 2009 at 02:00 AM
These are not the best of times to be running live events, but at TD Ameritrade’s Partnership 2009 national conference in Las Vegas in the first week of February, however, some 900 advisors gathered to commiserate and be educated over three days. In his welcoming address, Tom Bradley, the head of TD Ameritrade Institutional, recounted for the audience the changes since the last TDA gathering. In a separate interview with Editorial Director Jamie Green, Bradley was all business as he discussed the changing role of the custodian and the expectations of advisors.
You’ve been working with advisors since 1992 and have seen multiple business cycles. Is it different this time?
What’s changed is advisors’ desire for more information to share with their clients. They’re also looking for leadership–we have this long tenure which helps. What’s made it tough this time is that even well-diversified portfolios have been down. These advisors appreciate knowing that they’re not the only ones who are struggling.
They have a much greater appreciation for TD Ameritrade as their custodian. It used to be that advisors would refer to their custodian as a “necessary evil.” They’re not saying that now.
There are many brokers leaving wirehouses to go RIA. Are their expectations different?
Their expectations are very different. But one thing we’ve started, called AdvisorMatch, is to match our existing advisors with these breakaway brokers. It’s not a true M&A, but like adding a partner to your firm. Many of our RIAs like it.
