An Investor-Friendly Way to Switch Broker-Dealers

Independent Firms

You can offer comfort with numbers even if you are going independent. Many brokers, RIAs and firms custody assets via one of the three large publicly traded custodians – Schwab (SCHW),  Pershing (BK) and TD Ameritrade (AMTD). Or they may use another custodial firm (like National Financial) for which it’s easy to find compelling financials to present to clients.

This information is, of course, in addition to the sharing of other particulars about the independent broker-dealer you’ve chosen and how clients will benefit from your new role as a business owner.

Often, presentations created by investor relations departments can be a good source of potential bullet points. The investor relations people with whom I’ve spoken are typically helpful and reliable sources of information

Here are some quick points:

• Schwab has $2.44 trillion in client assets and a market cap of $37.5 billion.
• Fidelity boasts 23 million customers, administers some $5 trillion and manages roughly $2 trillion. Its clearing and custody division has $1.4 trillion in assets under management, along with 3,200 clients and 5.5 million accounts.
• Pershing oversees $1.5 trillion in global client assets. It is owned by BNY Mellon, which has $28.3 trillion in assets under custody or administration, $1.6 trillion in assets under management and operates in 100 different markets.
• TD Ameritrade is owned by one of Canada’s premier banks, which boasts about $800 billion (or Canadian $945 billion) of assets under management. TD Ameritrade client accounts have $650 billion of AUM, and clients do 400,000 trades per day. TD’s RIA division has $300 billion in AUM and 4,500 accounts.

A picture can paint a thousand words, and sometimes a few key financial figures can speak volumes, too.