Schwab exec updates progress on integrating TD Ameritrade technology

Nearly 18 months after completing its acquisition of TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab is still on track to meet its goal of integrating the two brokerages’ digital platforms within 36 months, said Alison Dooher, Schwab Advisor Services’ head of digital adviser solutions.

The last two years have evolved how Schwab thinks about developing technology for advisers, Dooher said. The custodian is investing three times more in technology than it did before the integration and has accelerated how quickly it brings new tools and capabilities to the market.

The next year will be even busier for Schwab as it prepares to bring aboard thousands of new RIAs from the TD platform. The firm believes it delivers a “best-of-both” platform for advisers of all sizes, and Dooher spoke with InvestmentNews about how and where Schwab is investing to make it happen.

[Editor’s note: The following has been lightly edited for length and clarity.]

InvestmentNews: Where is Schwab on its timeline? How far away are we from a complete integration of the two brokerage platforms?

Alison Dooher: We’re still in the process. We stated from legal Day One, which we like to refer as to back in October 2020, [a timeline of] 30 to 36 months. We’re maybe two-thirds of the way through.

One of the more recent evolutions of where we are in the planning process and where we think a lot about is how we’re going to get advisers ready for this event. What we’ve really started to do is engage advisers more actively, whether it be through webcasts [ or the] Solutions event we’ve been holding for 20-plus years for operations professionals for RIAs. Lots of dedicated sessions that really are more focused for the Ameritrade advisers and how they can plan what’s coming and the transition for their clients, what that will look and feel like, and the things they need to start thinking about in order to prepare for their own integration.

The other thing that I would mention that we’ve seen a lot of advisers engage in is the jump-start program we’ve kicked off for Ameritrade advisers to allow them open new client accounts on the Schwab platform. It’s not really for converting your existing accounts, but it does provide an opportunity to really get used to the platform, use the tools and smooth out the upcoming integration and change management.

IN: You say Schwab’s investment in technology is three times the rate before the integration. What exactly does that mean? What metrics are you looking at?

AD: We primarily talk about it in terms of the investment dollars that we’ve placed in the platform. It has certainly resulted in a much stronger velocity and pace of change that we’re introducing to the platform. It has allowed us to really roll out additional capabilities in advance of the upcoming integration for advisers … both for Schwab advisers who are on the platform already as well as offer a really robust digital landing spot for when the Ameritrade advisers join.

IN: Digital onboarding has been a big focus for Schwab, but what else can you tell me about the road map and specific areas that you are investing in?

AD: Digital onboarding is going to continue to be a strong investment area for us. When we launched in June with multiple accounts, that was a big step forward so that advisers could focus on onboarding households versus onboarding individual accounts one at a time.

The second piece that I would talk about is our continued investment in the move-money space. Cash transactions are one of the highest-volume activities that we see advisers do. We’re continuing to invest in that space. I’d offer up the example of being able to import bulk amounts of transactions into the system and approve them and release them. A lot of advisers who are doing regular events for their clients can create a ton of efficiencies by being able to do them en masse rather than one by one.

Another space that I would point to is the expansion of our integrations. This is going to be a constant place where we’re continuing to look to grow.

And then I think the last space I talk about is really in trading and investment management. The primary focus right now is around how do we bring [portfolio rebalancing software] iRebal, [trading platform] thinkpipes and the Model Market Center into the Schwab platform. The road map beyond integration is relatively robust with opportunity as we think about advisers who might want to leverage more managed accounts and how are we teeing up those platforms to help serve that need.

IN: What did the recent Benchmarking Study show about advisers who are adopting the technology you’re putting out there and how it's helping them?

AD:  The Benchmarking Study [shows] top-performing firms are seeing a 20% give-back in time against operational tasks for clients, allowing them to refocus that time toward more value-add interactions. …

What we hear from advisers matches the data we see in the study. Our product teams engage with advisers very actively and very regularly, both to understand what we should build next but also to understand how they’ve adopted and how they’re using tools that we’ve most recently put into market. Resoundingly, we’re hearing from advisers this concept of “thank you for giving me time back” in every little piece of their day when they’re able to do something faster and it gets done the first time. We often forget to talk about how most analog channels are error-prone. We see a 30% error rate with most channels other than digital when advisers are trying to open accounts. It’s well under 5% when we think about digital flows.

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IN: What else are you hearing from advisers about the challenges they are experiencing, or concerns that you’re addressing?

AD: Advisers are balancing complexity in their own practices, wanting choice in their technology solutions but also balancing the number of integrations that they will then have to manage. Our intent is again to serve advisers of all size, and that includes advisers who are looking for full-bore solutions directly from us as their custodian. A good example of that is [portfolio management software] Portfolio Connect. We’ve got several advisers who might use their own portfolio management tools, but if a custodial solution fits their needs, we want to be there and have something in market for them to use. Historically we saw a shift to a more customized tech stack, but we are starting to hear advisers consider a more simplified integration model. I’m interested to watch that trend mature and see where advisers choose to be.

The second piece of what we hear a lot from advisers is that data is king. They are investing a lot in their data capabilities. A lot of advisers are investing in being able to drive their own client insights. Whether that’s through leveraging more robust CRM tools or actually centralizing into a data warehouse, we’re hearing a lot of that as well.