Page 23 - Investment Advisor July/August 2021

she said, adding there are also “digitiza- Admire noted. But his firm is also “start- the office, according to Jim Weil, Private
tion opportunities that will take us into ing to see business come from other Vista managing partner.
new wealth.” sources,” including from its website and
Although COVID-19 accelerated social media, he said. An increasing INTEGRATION UPDATE
technology investment in the RIA sec- number of people are becoming aware Providing another Schwab-TD
tor, the “pace of investing” in new tech is of the RIA sector, what it does and what Ameritrade merger update, Clark said:
slowing, according to the Schwab study. makes RIAs unique, Admire said. “We’ve already combined our tech-
Only 57% of those polled this time said On the negative side, “talent has just nology teams so they’re working very
they were investing in new tech this been really tough to find for us and I closely together. Our leadership teams
year, down from 71% in 2020. know it is for everybody industrywide,” have been combined; they’re working
It was just “speculation” on his part, Admire said. “There’s just not enough closely together. Our control teams
but Clark told Investment have been combined; they’re
Advisor during the Q&A he Head of Advisor Services working closely together. [As
believed “2020 just represent- are] our training teams. All
ed such an uptick in spend- Bernie Clark doesn’t think those things have already
ing on technology, there’s a happened.”
bit of an absorption period the decline in tech spending During the Q&A, Clark
that we’re seeing in 2021 as said: “We have just materially
firms are starting to incorpo- represents a trend that will accomplished the synergies
rate that technology into their that we needed to in the advi-
platforms.” continue for long, he said. sor business.” From the start,
He doesn’t think the decline The pandemic “greatly Schwab has not been cutting
in tech spending represents a “client-facing individuals”
trend that will continue for accelerated digitization” and from its workforce, he noted.
long, he said. The pandemic Especially after seeing the
“greatly accelerated digiti- “took years off the curve,” strong trading volume from
zation” and “took years off December through February,
the curve,” he noted, adding he noted, adding Schwab is Schwab continues to expect a
Schwab is seeing a “phenom- need for all that staff, he said.
enal” level of tech adoption. seeing a “phenomenal” level of Job cuts have been “where
“Firms who adopt quickly tech adoption. there’s duplication of roles,”
are going to become more he noted, adding: “That is not
efficient,” he said. “They’re yet over.” He didn’t specify
going to serve more assets with fewer people coming into this industry to how many more cuts there may be or
dollars … and they are going to be the meet the demand for the talent that’s when they will happen.
winners in the future.” out there.” In May, Schwab eliminated more
What would help overcome that jobs at TD Ameritrade, including at least
TWO TAKES FROM INDEPENDENT RIAs challenge is that remote work is now three of its executives, as part of the ongo-
Willow Creek Wealth Management in “much more acceptable,” so his firm can ing integration of the two firms. Earlier
Sebastopol, California, an RIA that cus- “cast a bit of a wider net than we could this year, Schwab disclosed that it slashed
todies with Schwab, had similar results before,” Admire explained. Of course, about 200 jobs as part of its ongoing inte-
to what the study showed of the overall the downside “is that everyone else is gration with TD Ameritrade. These job
RIA sector, according to Timothy M. able to cast a wider net as well so there’s cuts were in addition to the more than
Admire, CEO, president and managing more competition there for that talent,” 1,000 jobs the company already said it
partner. However, while results were he conceded. was eliminating across the two firms fol-
“a little bit slow” last year, they “really Private Vista, an RIA that custodies lowing the finalization of the $22 billion
picked up strong from the beginning of with Schwab and has offices in Chicago deal in November.
Adobe Stock continue to come from client referrals,” hybrid remote-work model, in its case Jeff Berman can be reached at jberman@
and Oak Brook, Illinois, is moving to a
2021,” he said.
“For us, a lot of that growth still does
with an average of three days a week in
alm.com.

JULY/AUGUST 2021 INVESTMENT ADVISOR 21