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February 11, 2020 at 01:10 PM
From left: Joel Bruckenstein, Heather Fortner, Shannon Spotswood and Teri Shepherd. (Photo: Jeff Berman/ALM)
Continued consolidation — especially the planned merger of Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade — was among the standout concerns expressed by advisors, industry executives and others at TD Ameritrade’s recent National LINC 2020 conference in Orlando, Florida.
Of Schwab’s plan to buy TD Ameritrade for $26 billion, Joel Bruckenstein, president of Technology Tools for Today, told ThinkAdvisor that the concerns he heard “voiced most often” at the conference included culture differences between the firms.
While speaking to “quite a few advisors at the conference,” Bruckenstein said, another big concern that arose was around technology. Advisors like the open-access approach of TD Ameritrade’s Veo platform, and they “believe that TD’s tech is superior” to Schwab’s, be said Monday.
Advisors have also told Bruckenstein they think the service model for those with less than $100 million in assets under management will be “less favorable” under Schwab’s ownership, he said.
Of the continued consolidation of fintech players, Bruckenstein had said, during one conference panel, that for each one that worked out well, he could point to one that did not.
