facebook twitter instagram linkedin google youtube vimeo tumblr yelp rss email podcast phone blog search brokercheck brokercheck Play Pause

TD Ameritrade - Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. Transition



KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Assets and holdings will be transferred automatically

  • Monthly Distributions and Contributions will automatically be scheduled in your new Schwab Accounts

  • AdvisorClient access will be needed to create Schwab Alliance credentials (doing this now will not require use of a Schwab account number, after conversion an account number will be needed)

  • Schwab will be mailing a Key Information packet that will provide a written record of new account number(s) (accounts will be renumbered)

  • There will be a blackout period for online access to both AdvisorClient and Schwab Alliance over Labor Day weekend

One thing that's always true is things are continually changing.

Today I'm sitting in my home office, and I have the old Vizionary sign because we moved to our new space a few weeks ago. Something else that is shifting come Labor Day weekend is that everything at TD Ameritrade is going to be shifting to the Schwab platform. The structure and the look of statements are going to change come September. How data feeds on our side behind the scenes is going to change, and the custodian who custodies your assets is going to shift from TD Ameritrade to Charles Schwab & Co. Inc (Schwab).

This is not something that happened overnight. It is also not something that we are initiating. Schwab bought TD Ameritrade a couple of years ago, and they've been in the process of working behind the scenes to make this shift happen. So, there has been armies of people in places like Topeka, Kansas, and Omaha, Nebraska who have been toiling to plug all the wires in and make sure that everything transitions flawlessly.

We are working with them as well as with those on the tech side to make sure that everything correlates. We'll be going account by account, position by position through assets as we get through this shift together. We wanted to let you know that this is a shift that's coming over Labor Day weekend.

To clear up any confusion, they did send out an email that made the announcement a little prematurely to some of our clients due to our wires being crossed. So, if you were one of those recipients, we would like to apologize that we didn't get out ahead of that with you. This is not a shift that's unexpected or intentional on our end. In fact, we are always willing to look into researching other vendors and researching other custodians. If service levels fall off, if the technology doesn't keep pace, and if they raise prices that negatively impact you as our client, there will be discussions together, pointing out that we have options to use other service providers as a custodian.

Right now, we're not anticipating a shift or for that to even occur in the immediate future, but we are preparing for a shift like that if Schwab does not keep its promises. We're always going to keep our vendors on a short leash and have them meet or exceed our expectations the same way that you would have expectations of us.

Hope you're having a great summer. If you have questions regarding this or anything else, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at Vizionary Wealth Management. We're always here to help you envizion more. Have a fantastic July.