Cybersecurity and financial fraud are top-of-mind, high-priority issues today — and two areas in which the clearing industry has become increasingly vigilant.
Much of the security effort is aimed at helping broker-dealers develop best practices to safeguard computers from attack, thereby protecting investor identity and information.
"The industry is working very diligently to address cybersecurity by putting safeguards in place," notes William Coppel, managing director and chief client growth officer at First Clearing, an affiliate of Wells Fargo based in St. Louis. "We've asked our firms to be aggressive around evaluating their networks and infrastructure and are working hand-in-glove with them to monitor" systems.
At RBC Correspondent Services in Minneapolis, there's "an enhanced focus" on the security front, according to Catie Tobin, head of correspondent and advisor services. "We're making sure that firms know what to look for that might be of concern and are working on new technology solutions to help provide more security," she says.
The financial services industry faces many risks; fraud certainly isn't the least of them. Safe to say that clearers are putting greater emphasis on detecting and preventing it.
"Fraudsters are getting increasingly creative with third-party transfers," notes Sanjiv Mirchandani, president of National Financial, a Fidelity Investments company, based in Boston, and the second-largest clearing provider. The firm, with 400 clients, has integrated into its advisor workstation advanced tools addressing fraud, money laundering and security. It is training firms both in how to identify fraudulent wire transfer requests and procedures they can implement to protect advisors and clients.
"We spend a lot of time and energy training our correspondents on how to protect themselves against fraud," Mirchandani says. "Ultimately, it's their risk; but we do everything we can to help them know what can be done to minimize it."
Advisors Needed
Simultaneous to coping with these major worrisome problems is an industry-wide effort to attract new financial advisors.Here, too, clearing firms are stepping up as never before.
Studies have shown an alarmingly shrinking FA population. For example, Cerulli Associates research has found that 71% of advisors are projected to leave the business within two decades. Over the next 10 years alone, one-third of advisors plan to retire or otherwise quit the industry. As many as 12,000 to 16,000 FAs per year will retire during the decade, Cerulli says.
This means that the replacement rate to keep pace with advisor demand must average 6.4% annually, Pershing—the largest clearing firm, with 1,500 clients globally—notes in its 2013 "Broker-Dealer of the Future II" study. The BNY Mellon company also has published several white papers on how two draw younger advisors "to make certain that practices are sustainable for the long run," Jim Crowley, Pershing's chief relationship officer, based in Jersey City, N.J., notes.
But, Crowley adds, "retiring and dying clients tend to be of the same age set as their advisors, so there's great risk embedded not only in advisors retiring but also in clients [exiting] because that threatens business models."
In their expansion, clearing firms are continuing to take on a greater role in helping BDs recruit FAs.
For example, Raymond James, with 43 clearing clients, has a marketing department that builds custom campaigns for firms, including the creation of recruiting websites and marketing materials.
Proactive recruiting isn't the sole way to add advisors, of course. "Passive recruiting" often may be more effective, according to Crowley.
"Going out and finding a new recruit—the next breakaway wirehouse advisor—is very expensive," Crowley notes. "Also, there may be an upfront cash incentive payment that a firm has to make to draw that advisor to their platform—the wrong reason to move" anyway. In contrast, "passive recruits are joining firms they're attracted to because they're consistent with their values and beliefs. They feel they'll be a good fit with their practices."
Crowley continues. "Rather than being [approached] by a recruiter, passive recruits network through trade associations, friends and [spheres of influence], inquiring about firms they're interested in, asking, 'What's it like to be affiliated with XYZ?' Some of our clients have a highly selective process that takes as many as two or three years for a potential recruit to become affiliated—they want to see their track record and how they run their practice and deal with clients."
Succession planning, allied with recruiting, emerged as the biggest issue at RBC's Advisor Council Meeting in February, Tobin notes. The firm's clearing business, which has 180 clients, is marketing a number of tools and programs on how to efficiently transition and is educating firms on how to talk about a succession plan with advisors. This includes, Tobin says, "what you need to be concerned with in bringing in a new partner or if something catastrophic happens to someone on the team."
Correspondent Clearing at Raymond James has a practice planning group that assists advisors in considering options for transitioning their business and a separate transition team to help move assets and clients.
"We want to make it a smooth process so that when the advisor retires or moves on, the client's financial world isn't upset," says Robb Combs, Raymond James' director of Correspondent Clearing, with 43 clients.
