Custodians, RIAs to launch awareness campaign

Registered investment advisers who are frustrated with getting a blank stare when they tell potential clients that they are independent and not a broker-dealer, are being asked to unite around a new branding campaign called OneVoiceRIA. The effort is the brainchild of Gobind Daryanani, a managing director at TD Ameritrade Institutional in Jersey City, N.J., who has ambitious plans to blanket the public with web advertising, magazine articles and a viral marketing campaign aimed at making clear the uniqueness of RIAs by March or April. He and his steering committee plan to fund the venture with $25 contributions from individual advisers and — more practically — with $50,000 in "sponsor" contributions from consultants and providers of record-keeping and other custody services, including TD Ameritrade. Mr. Daryanani, who joined TD Ameritrade last year after it bought his portfolio-rebalancing-software firm, said that the group plans to blast e-mails soliciting support from the 15,000-plus RIA community in January. He is getting help from the Arlington Heights, Ill.-based National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, which has agreed to distribute information about the group to its approximately 2,000 members, and expects a similar endorsement soon from the Denver-based Financial Planning Association. TD Ameritrade and Fidelity Investments' institutional wealth services unit in Boston have agreed to be sponsors, and Charles Schwab & Co. Inc., the San Francisco-based brokerage firm and RIA custodian, is also likely to join, Mr. Daryanani said.

SPREAD THE WORD

A Fidelity spokesman confirmed that the firm is sponsoring OneVoiceRIA because of its potential "to help drive awareness of independent advisers as another choice for investors." Mr. Daryanani said that supporters have promised to spread the word to clients at conferences and through other channels. "We hope to get as many as 4,000 [paid] supporters by early next year," he said, noting that more than 1,000 individuals from 66 RIA firms and support companies are already on board. The group has commissioned a marketing design agency to develop a logo and motto. OneVoiceRIA was spawned by a study commissioned by TD Ameritrade in March that found that only 16% of high-net-worth investors were aware of the RIA designation. A follow-up survey in September came to the same conclusion, Mr. Daryanani said. Despite his ambitious timetable, his goal for the campaign appears modest to some RIAs. In an apparent effort to avoid antagonizing custodians and others who work with broker-dealers as well as with independent fee-only advisers, OneVoiceRIA's campaign aims solely to educate investors that they have a choice when seeking help with their investments and financial issues. "We want them to know that RIAs exist along with do-it-yourself investment options and broker-dealers," Mr. Daryanani said. The campaign will eschew controversial topics such as those that contrast fee-only advisers' fiduciary obligations to clients with what RIAs say are the more divided loyalties that commission brokers or hybrid adviser-brokers have to clients as well as the companies for which they work. "We will not focus on differences between RIAs and B-Ds," the group's website, onevoiceria.com, prominently declares. Indeed, the group has already planned its own obsolescence. Once the recognition survey, which will be repeated every six months, finds that 50% of the public is aware of RIAs, "we will close shop," Mr. Daryanani said. The target date for that goal is the end of next year, he added.

MODEST GOALS

The modest agenda has already created controversy. Chris Cordaro, chief investment officer at RegentAtlantic Capital LLC of Morristown, N.J., has stepped down as a member of the four-person steering committee because he disagrees with the limited message, according to Mr. Daryanani. Other steering committee members include Paula Hogan, founder of Hogan Financial Management LLC in Milwaukee, Deena Katz, co-founder of Evensky & Katz LLC in Coral Gables, Fla., Tom Orecchio, a principal of Greenbaum & Orecchio Inc. in Old Tappan, N.J., and Meg Staknis, a marketing vice president at Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services. Mr. Daryanani, who also serves on the steering committee, said he hopes to add a member from Schwab. "I applaud [Mr. Daryanani] for getting this off the ground, but once they raise consciousness to 50%, they're out of business," said Frank Armstrong, chief executive of Investor Solutions Inc., a Miami-based manager with just under $500 million of client assets. "What we need is a continuing co-branding campaign with the custodians that will get people to say, 'I need one of those [RIAs],' instead of just zoning out," he said. "People need to know about why they should care about us." Mr. Armstrong has paid his $25 to OneVoiceRIA but said that he would be willing to pony up as much as 2% of his annual revenue for an ongoing campaign that stressed RIAs' unique virtues. "That's a good chunk of money for me, about $60,000," he said. Custodians to whom he broached the concept haven't shown much interest, Mr. Armstrong said. Indeed, some are expressing ambivalence even about OneVoiceRIA. "There are many different types of RIAs, and it's unclear to us which segment of the RIA market One-VoiceRIA will be representing," Mark Tibergien, chief executive of Pershing Advisor Solutions LLC, a unit of The Bank of New York Mellon Corp.'s Pershing LLC subsidiary in Jersey City, N.J., wrote in an e-mail. "As a result, we are waiting to see how this initiative unfolds before providing our support." Charles Schwab spokeswoman Alison Wertheim said that the OneVoiceRIA concept "has some potential, but we have made no commitments." Schwab, she added, has run "category advertising" on its own to advance investor appreciation of RIAs. Mr. Daryanani said that he expects Schwab to join the effort — with its contribution triggering the jumping-off point for a January outreach to RIAs. Pershing, however, is unlikely to participate because of its large relationships with broker-dealers as a clearing firm, he indicated. E-mail Jed Horowitz at jhorowitz@investmentnews.com.