TD Ameritrade Launches a New Hybrid Digital Platform

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TD Ameritrade has launched a digital investing platform for self-directed high-net-worth clients that incorporates financial advice from credentialed human portfolio consultants.

Personalized Portfolios, as the platform is called, targets individuals with a minimum $250,000 to invest who want more guidance and investment choices than the firm's existing digital platforms but aren't willing to delegate investment decisions to an independent advisor.

The portfolio consultants are certified financial planners and/or chartered financial analysts and work with senior financial consultants to provide tailored portfolios. The annual advisory fee is 0.90% for the first half-million, 0.75% for the next half-million, and 0.60% for assets over $1 million. Additional fees may be levied for separately managed accounts.

Personalized Portfolios is for investors "who want to maintain more control of their investments while also collaborating with professionals to make investment decisions," said spokesman Joe Giannone.

The platform "offers a fully customizable experience that fills a key gap in our client advice continuum," said Peter deSilva, president of retail at TD Ameritrade, in a statement.

In its recent Affluent Investors Survey, the firm found that nearly four out of 10 investors with  at least $250,000 in investable assets want to remain in control of their investments and almost two-thirds also cited the importance of a customized portfolio.

The new Personalized Portfolios platform has 163 model portfolio strategies covering 29 asset classes and custom portfolios of active and passive funds and ETFs plus discretionary management of core portfolios. Investors also have the option of separately managed accounts with additional guidance available for specific strategies and preferences, but that may involve additional fees.

The new platform rounds out other digital offerings from TD Ameritrade: Its Essential Portfolios, a plain vanilla robo offering requiring a minimum $5,000 to invest, launched in 2017, and Selective Portfolios, launched initially in 2004 and offering digital and human advice with a minimum of $25,000.

Personalized Portfolios "illustrates the continued evolution of the hybrid advisor/digital value proposition,"  said Greg O'Gara, senior research analyst at the Aite Group.  "The portfolio construction process seems to be highly flexible and can seemingly accommodate any investment objective."

For those high net worth investors who want even more sophisticated and customized wealth management services, TD Ameritrade also offers its AdvisorDirect service, which refers HNW clients to independent RIAs.

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