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TDA4advisors Blog

Skip Schweiss, Managing Director, Advisor Advocacy & Industry Affairs, TD Ameritrade Institutional

“As Managing Director of Advisor Advocacy & Industry Affairs for TD Ameritrade Institutional, I help to expand the voice of registered investment advisors (“RIAs”) on important policy issues. As I publish my insights here on the regulatory and legislative issues that affect fiduciary advisors and their retail investor clients, you can be certain that I’m working alongside you every day to make sure that common sense, efficient regulation, and investor interests prevail.”

-Skip Schweiss (Follow Skip Schweiss on Twitter @TDASchweiss)

FINRA recently made headlines with an attention-grabbing announcement from Chairman and CEO Rick Ketchum, who stated that the organization was “backing off” of its efforts to oversee RIAs. He noted that there really wasn’t any current support for this effort in Congress.

Interestingly enough, he did appear to invite the SEC to provide support for the idea of increasing RIA regulation.  And right on cue, the SEC on March 1st released a Request for Information asking for public input on two things:  a uniform fiduciary standard for brokers and investment advisers; and a ‘harmonization’ of regulations and oversight between brokers and advisers.  The 72 page Request for Information follows up on the two primary recommendations in the SEC Staff’s January 2011 Section 913 Study.

So, what does this mean?  I expect the debate to continue, robustly, only now it may take on a different form as well as a different cast of characters.   If increasing RIA regulation is to be accomplished by making it more like broker-dealer regulation under a uniform fiduciary standard, advisors may not be happy with that direction.

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George Tamer, Director, Strategic Relationships, TD Ameritrade Institutional

“This post is contributed by George Tamer, Director of Institutional Sales, TD Ameritrade. George delivered a presentation during the TD Ameritrade Institutional Conference on the topic of client service.”

$528,000.¹ This is the lifetime value of a client. Are you willing to lose a client if this is what it costs?  Most clients leave due to service breakdowns. These service breakdowns might not happen in the ways you expect. Sometimes it’s as simple as:

•   A product or service did not do what it was
expected to do

•   A promise was not kept

•   A deadline was missed

For every client complaint you might receive, there are twenty-six² that you didn’t hear about. Also, a negative client experience is more likely to be shared than a good one. Unhappy clients will talk about negative experiences with their friends. In fact, a dissatisfied client will tell an average of twelve³ people about their experience.

These clients can be called “Madvocates.”⁴  The three demographic groups most likely to spread bad news about your brand are the affluent (30%), women (25%), and young adults (25%).⁴ These are your current and future clients!

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“This is a guest post contributed by Jason C. Roberts, CEO, Pension Resource Institute, LLC and Partner, Roberts Elliott, LLP. Jason conducted a session at the TD Ameritrade Institutional National Conference.”

When competing for retirement plans, historically RIAs may have had an edge because of their ability to render investment advice, as compared to registered representatives and insurance agents who generally are unable to claim that they are held to the fiduciary standard. Today, however, with the proliferation of third-party managers available on record-keeping platforms capable of providing “remote” fiduciary services, this value proposition, standing alone, may not have the impact it once did.

In addition, the sweeping regulatory reforms recently finalized by the Department of Labor have raised the bar on employers, and many are reexamining their relationship with their plan advisor.  One of the primary themes we see is that many employers are looking for more holistic support across all aspects of the plan. Less emphasis is being placed on investment-related credentials and the selection criteria are focusing on the advisor’s ability to contribute to the overall success of the plan.

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