Page 37 - Investment Advisor December 2022/January 2023

agement platform. In August 2018, UBS sold the technology to closing, with “additional earn-out payments” to be made over
robo-advisor SigFig, which the Swiss-based bank had invested the following three years, according to a press release.
in two years earlier. “We are excited to embark on this new phase of our relation-
ship with our deeply respected, long-standing partner, FRGIS,”
said Rich Steinmeier, LPL Financial managing director and
Charles Schwab intends to complete the conversion of TD divisional president, Business Development, in a statement.
Ameritrade onto Schwab’s platform over the Labor Day week- “This acquisition strengthens our relationship with a strate-
end of 2023, Tom Bradley, managing director of Schwab Advisor gically important client and provides a foundation on which to
Services, disclosed in late October, about two years after accelerate expansion of several strategic growth areas, particu-
Schwab completed its $22 billion acquisition of TD Ameritrade, larly in the financial institution space,” he explained. “FRGIS is
forming a brokerage firm with over $6 trillion in client assets. an industry leader of managed programs for banks and credit
Bradley and Jessica Heffron, managing director of unions and provides a strategic complement to LPL’s existing
Advisor Services Integration at Schwab, provided enterprise offering.”
these 10 updates: Financial Resources Group will continue to oper-
• The completion of advisor services conversion ate independently within LPL after the deal clos-
of TD Ameritrade onto the Schwab platform es and will keep its brand and leadership team.
will take place Labor Day weekend 2023;
• TD Ameritrade advisors will mostly be
able to keep their service teams; Envestnet says it intends to enter the custody
• Schwab said again that there will be no business for registered investment advisors,
repapering; according to remarks made by company execu-
• TD Ameritrade’s brand will be retired; tives during its quarterly earnings call in November.
• Schwab continues to invest heavily in its platform; This would put it in direct competition with the “Big
• Schwab is hiring more staff ahead of the conversion; Three” — Schwab, Fidelity and BNY Mellon’s Pershing. The
• Schwab stepped up its talks with advisors about the custody effort — set to be rolled out in the second half of
conversion over the summer; 2023 — relies on Envestnet’s partnership with New Zealand-
• The Jump Start program is getting less use than expected; based FNZ, which offers custodial and technology services.
• Third-party technology vendors are getting up to speed; and The news was first reported by Citywire and Barron’s.
• What’s left now on Schwab’s list of tasks is execution. “Our new partnership with FNZ opens up multiple sig-
nificant addressable market opportunities for us to drive
increased revenues associated with custody,” CEO Bill Crager
LPL Financial said on Nov. 3 that it is buying one of its larg- said on the Nov. 8 call. Envestnet and FNZ have “extremely
est branch offices: Financial Resources Group Investment complementary capabilities,” Crager explained. “We also have
Services, which has 800 advisors working with 85 financial very complementary geographies. We are accelerating FNZ’s
institutions and $40 billion of advisory and brokerage assets. entry into the United States market, and they are bringing us
Based in Fort Mill, South Carolina, FRGIS operates as an affili- into the international markets. This is truly a global deal.”
ated office of supervisory jurisdiction with LPL. The two firms announced their partnership on Oct. 27,
The deal, which LPL expects to close in 2023, is structured referring to it as a step in building “a fully digital, integrated
as an equity purchase and includes $140 million to be paid at wealth management experience for the U.S. market.”

n January, Merrill Lynch said it fired one of its advisors after he He said the store had sold him a smoothie that caused his son
Iwas arrested and charged over an incident at a Robeks smooth- to have a severe allergic reaction. An employee captured the inci-
ie shop in Connecticut, where he was captured on video yelling, dent in a profanity-laden video that went viral on social media.
swearing and making comments toward an employee about their “Our company does not tolerate behavior of this kind,”
immigration status and throwing a drink at an employee. Merrill spokesman Bill Halldin said. “We immediately inves-

DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023 INVESTMENT ADVISOR 35