It’s getting really competitive out there in RIA land. Custodians, in an effort to attract more new RIA business, are feeling the need to provide higher and higher level services to their RIAs.
Practice management seems to be a way for custodians to differentiate themselves. An article on the WSJ Financial Adviser site yesterday shows the lengths that TD Ameritrade Institutional is going for their clients:
“The idea is that if we work with our clients and provide them with resources, they’ll grow, and when they grow, we grow,” [Tom Bradley, president of TD Ameritrade Institutional] says.
This recent push is built upon the momentum generated from a study TD Ameritrade published at the end of 2009 entitled “Preparing for Growth in a New Era of Delivering Financial Advice” (.pdf).
It’s an interesting study — here are a couple of the takeaways:
- 64% of RIAs say marketing is top slot for advisor investments, up from 53% three months previous
- 60% of RIAs reported adding new clients in spite of brand weakness
- #1 source of new clients continues to be dissatisfied investors of broker-dealers and Wall Street firms
- 68% of RIAs state that growing their businesses was their top priority for 2010 and 42% were focused on bettering service levels
- 61% are increasing spending on technology
This all spells good things for custodians who can deliver. TD Ameritrade is doing so with this relaunch of their Maximize by RIA Business consulting practice.
All custodians offer this type of service to some extent. What’s your experience?
