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February 26, 2020 at 03:56 PM
Schwab seems to be sweetening the pie again to retain small RIAs who custody with TD Ameritrade if and when the Justice Department approves the Schwab-TD Ameritrade merger.
Rather than using its own custodial platform as the starting point for a new integrated custodial platform, Chief Operating Officer Joe Martinetto suggested during the firm’s 2020 Winter Business Update in early February, Schwab is looking to create a platform that could take parts from TD Ameritrade’s platform as well.
Starting Thursday, the firm will begin to review the two platforms — Schwab’s with 80 third-party technology providers and TD’s with about 170 to 180, to see “which ones are being used, which ones advisors like,” and the overlap between the two, said Tom Bradley, the TD Ameritrade veteran whom Schwab hired to oversee the integration of the two advisory businesses.
“The idea is that we come up with a best-of-breed platform … that has open access,” said Bradley.
The firms will start gap analysis — identifying what Schwab offers and TD doesn’t and vice versa, then filling those gaps, said Bradley, who along with Bernie Clark, head of Schwab Advisor Services, met with ThinkAdvisor.
Clark “suspects” it will include those applications that have served advisors well such as Schwab’s eAuthorization for moving money electronically and TD Ameritrade’s iRebal, for portfolio rebalancing. “The combined initiative will represent something different,” said Clark.
“It probably won’t be called Veo or Schwab Advisor Center,” said Bradley, referring to the platforms of the two firms, but it will be focused on making the “thousands of advisors from TD Ameritrade” happy and wanting to do business with Schwab.
