Oisín Breen

So much is happening in our industry is hard to keep up. For reasons all too obvious, I am keenly interested to see what results of the Schwab vs TD tech stack wars. In a previous RIABiz article I was quoted questioning why Schwab dump VEO since its a more modern architecture. However, I misspoke. VEO is a decade old. Yes it's true, it's API-centric, but things have changed drastically over the past 5 years. While APIs are important to provide the communication pathway between platforms and services, the core architecture technologies far more advanced.

As co-founder and former CTO at RedBlack Software there were things that I wanted to do as we entered into the hybrid cloud infrastructure in 2010. I could see what I wanted to do in vision but could not develop it because browsers and other aspects of cloud technology and architecture didn't exist at the level of sophistication needed. In 2011 just getting basic right-click functions in a browser was like asking for a miracle.

Fast forward to today and we have cloud databases petabytes in size. Microservices architecture that enables limitless ondemand computing resources. Things I could only dream of doing are now a reality.

There is a sea change coming to wealthtech that will leave many wondering "what just happened?" while those who realized and acted will reap the rewards of platform as a service (PaaS).

PaaS will revolutionize the way how do much more efficiently and effectively we get things done. What was once only available to large institutions will be available to the small emerging advisor.

PaaS is quickly becoming the foundation of the digital transformation we ask keep hearing about. In fact digital transformation initiatives will rely heavily on PaaS to scale and ultimately succeed for the long haul.

As chief product officer at AdvisorPeak I can tell you that we are all about PaaS and so are many of our partners. Soon the term integration will become a dirty word and give way to subscription.

The coming waves of change in wealthtech will be exciting, meaningful and with immediate positive impact to your business

Pete

Pete Giza | CPO | www.AdvisorPeak.com

I hope that the TD Ameritrade online platform will be similar because it is so user friendly for trading and training!

.maybe, after the Schwab/ TD merger, they will do away with selling Premium and offer free sounds investment advice to their customers.

Walt Bettinger expects 'hundreds' of Charles Schwab Corp. staff tasked with wiring TD Ameritrade merger to soon soar to 'thousands' of Schwab and TD workers

TD Ameritrade

The Charles Schwab Corp.

Walt Bettinger

Michael Kitces

Asset custodians are the central players in the RIA business and choosing one is the biggest decision most financial advisors will make to build their business. As the place where RIAs park their assets (the same way a captive broker would park assets at Merrill Lynch or UBS), custodians serve hundreds or thousands of these registered investment advisors and make big investments in technology and service on their clients' behalf.

This section features a series of articles under the “Asset Custody Project” label that cover these companies in a way that keeps advisors abreast of their progress – both with journalistic commentary and a common set of data so that advisors can easily compare them. The articles look at the strengths, weaknesses and niche capabilities of these companies.

&mdash; Brooke Southall

Here are links to the profiles of custodians:

 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/11942001/">Equity Advisor Solutions</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/4977738934910976/with-robo-advisors-on-the-rise-robo-custodian-apex-is-rising-them-a-diamond-mined-from-the-rubble-of-the-penson-worldwide-debacle">Apex Clearing</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/11320001">Raymond James</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/10207085">State Street</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/1812010">Ceros Financial</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/9033656">Fidelity</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/7435709">Pershing</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/1212007">Royal Bank of Canada</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/133138">Scottrade</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/8101589">Schwab</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/8788433">TD Ameritrade</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/124061">Trade-PMR</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/1161005">Trust Company of America</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/1490002">BNY Mellon</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/5385142">Folio Institutional</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/108011">Shareholders Service Group</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/5933001">National Advisors Trust</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/22600260/how-us-bank-appeared-on-the-scene-as-an-ria-custodian-and-where-it-might-find-love">US Bank</a></li>
</ul>

If you want a more chronological look at news about the custodians, just scroll down.

RIA Custodians

The Charles Schwab Corp. CEO reassured Wall Street analysts looking for a sign Schwab believes what it promises about an imminent closing that it has yet to schedule.

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