Doug Talir, director and founder of Scottrade's RIA custody business, departs
Scottrade is seeking to fill position
3 min read- Doug Talir, director of Scottrade's RIA custody business, has departed.
- Scottrade is actively seeking a replacement for Talir's leadership role.
- Scottrade's RIA custody unit has grown significantly, attracting smaller advisors.
- Talir's departure is a potential loss, especially for smaller RIAs.
Doug Talir has left Scottrade.
The director of advisor services suddenly departed the St. Louis-based discount broker after he had seemingly created terrific momentum for his young custody unit.
Scottrade is seeking to fill his vacated position and Brian Davis, who has also been prominent in leading the custody business, will speak for the unit in the meantime, according to the company.
“Unfortunately, it is true,” that Talir is leaving, says Lorie Eigenrauch who serves as a company spokeswoman in an e-mail.
Scottrade is ramping up marketing -- with an interim leader at the helm
“We cannot go into details out of respect for Doug’s privacy, but we are sad to see him go,” she adds. “Scottrade is currently looking to add a new member to the Scottrade Advisor Services leadership team. Brian Davis [manager of business development for Scottrade] will be serving as our spokesperson in the interim.”
RIA per business day
The St. Louis-based brokerage firm was adding an RIA per business day this summer and it has more than 700 of them that call Scottrade home, up from just 350 RIAs in 2007. Scottrade Advisor Services was started four years ago, according to an earlier interview with Talir.
“We’re at the point on the crossroads where we can say we have [most of what] advisors need to run their practice,” Talir said in the earlier interview.
Story Timeline
Scottrade has won adherents because of its no-if-ands-or-buts $7 trades and because the smallest advisors get dedicated service personnel. In June it released a an upgraded technology platform for its RIAs. This platform emboldened Scottrade to come out of out of the bulrushes with a more aggressive marketing campaign aimed at RIAs, Talir added in the interview.
Adding to the list of RIA custodians headed by execs with Schwab schooling, Scottrade promotes Brian Davis
Scottrade’s growth is the beneficiary of two trends: smaller brokers getting pushed out of wirehouses and the emphasis, perceived or real, of Schwab Advisor Services, Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services and TD Ameritrade focusing on competing upmarket.
Scottrade’s orientation toward smaller advisors is palpable to a number of advisors I interviewed.
Extra level of authenticity
“It’s not that I had lengthy list of negative experiences at Fidelity and Schwab [where he formerly held his assets],” says Derek Kennedy, president of Kennedy Wealth Management in Knoxville, Tenn.. “It’s more that I’m getting that extra level of authenticity at Scottrade.”
Ken Brackett, principal with Lighthouse Financial, which manages $20 million from Wilmington, Del., says that he feels the same way about the service. “I started with Scottrade,” he says. “They made me feel important when I had nothing.”
Scottrade has the nation’s largest branch network with 425 retail offices, and it has won the J.D. Power award for online brokers in the service category, eight of the last nine years. Such a streak is all but unheard of in any category measured by that survey firm.
Editor’s Note: The last time I was scheduled to interview Doug Talir when he was at the FPA Anaheim conference a few weeks ago. I was not able to do the interview after all when he unexpectedly had to leave the conference. His departure from Scottrade seems like a big loss for RIAs, especially the smallest ones. He never hedged about his willingness to take them on and provide them dedicated service personnel.
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