Independent broker-dealer Securities America says it has rolled out a texting option for its financial advisors and office staff.
"Texting is becoming the public's communication channel of choice," said Gregory J. Smith, the firm's senior vice president of supervision, in a statement. "We're excited our advisors can now text their client for quick, casual communication, rather than go through the lengthy process of email or phoning. Texting will help keep the advisors top of mind with their clients."
Securities America says the texting capability took close to two years of planning and testing.
"We've known for some time that texting would become an important channel of client communication for our advisors," explained Smith. "We concluded our internal research in October 2017. We then had a group of our advisors test the program, which they finished in December. The response was overwhelmingly positive."
The IBD, which has roughly 2,200 affiliated advisors, is owned by Ladenburg Thalmann, which is also the parent company of Triad Advisors, Investacorp, KMS Financial Services and Securities Service Network.
Securities America announced the texting breakthrough about one week after Merrill Lynch, which has about 15,000 financial advisors, announced its texting launch. Both firms are using CellTrust technology for their respective programs.
