TD Ameritrade is 'gathering feedback' after Michael Kitces's blogged overture for RIA collective bargaining on wholesale ETF line-up shift

The blogger and RIA platform owner offered three compromises and one request for a deadline extension but the RIA custodian is thus far having none of it

Author Brooke Southall October 20, 2017 at 11:47 PM

7 Comments

MIchael Kitces: TD Ameritrade continues to maintain that lots of firms are happy, but I have not heard from one that is pleased with the changes. Literally not one.

ETFs

RIA Custodians

Jim Dario

Tim Welsh

Michael Kitces

TD Ameritrade

Nexus Strategy

XY Planning Network

Nerd's Eye View

Sean Kernan

October 21, 2017 — 1:18 AM

Michael can cause some serious PR damage, but at the moment XYPN only represents 1 of the 750 billion that TD has on its platform. Not sure they care about if $7 trades (if you can't or won't shift to SPDRs) are going to be a problem for next gen clients. They never were are not now a partner, they are a vendor....seems shortsighted to assume things never change, especially when it involves a publicly traded company wanting to make more money.

GABRIEL PINCUS

October 21, 2017 — 8:15 PM

I understand that TD is a vendor not a partner and that as a publicly traded company they have every right to make changes for their shareholders benefit. It would have been easier to accept this change had advisors been given more notice. For advisors who use the NTF platform as part of their strategy, 30 days simply is not enough time to make all of these changes. Second, and to me this is the most important issue - the new less expensive State Street ETFs trade on average less than 25,000 shares per day. This is less than 1% of the volume of the Vanguard and iShare ETFs being replaced. As a fiduciary, I cannot purchase ETFs which trade this thinly and also feature spreads of 0.50+.

Sean P Kernan

October 22, 2017 — 11:53 PM

Yes, you can...use limit orders.

Jeff Spears

October 23, 2017 — 6:17 PM

Joe Giannone is smart and good guy that is starting to sound like Sean Spicer.

Stephen Winks

October 23, 2017 — 6:25 PM

The independent RIA is gaining scale and power in the marketplace. It is where all the growth is coming from and is distinctly different from conventional brokerage. The new TDA management line up seems more comfortable with captured brokers (Scott Trade) than advisors (the old TDA) who increasingly have choice. SCW

The Contra Winks

October 27, 2017 — 1:44 AM

Stephen- Surely you understand the difference between NTF ETF's and the Bid/Ask expense? This has absolutely nothing to do with Captive Brokers and RIAs. Most Advisors whether RIA, Captive or otherwise have no clue how NTF or Commission free math works or they've chosen not to dig into the math.

Stephen Winks

October 27, 2017 — 9:12 PM

Contra, I understand perfectly why CALPERS bought the source code of Computer Aided Decisions (sub-accounting, trade and order routing and reporting) to create the first zero trading cost environment to fulfill their fiduciary duty. As matter of fact, minimizing trade execution cost is one of the determinants of professional standing in advisory services which is why the RIA will eclipse conventional brokerage. There are several large RIAs with scale working to that end. You presume conventional brokerage which openly opposes fiduciary duty is a viable path to expert fiduciary standing. As for my understanding of spreads , I am ready to take you to school. SCW

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Mentioned in this article:

TD Ameritrade
Asset Custodian
Top Executive: Tom Nally

Nexus Strategy
Consulting Firm
Top Executive: Timothy D. Welsh

Kitces.com
Consulting Firm
Top Executive: Michael Kitces