Tools & Resources

This is a transcript of unscripted speech, rather than written prose, and therefore should not be relied on for grammatical accuracy. This is not a verbatim transcript. Parts have been slightly modified to improve readability.

On-screen text:
Schwab Advisor ServicesTM 
Service Professionals 

On-screen text:
Jeff Blumenthal 
Managing Director, Advisor Services Business Development

JEFF BLUMENTHAL:  Hi, I’m Jeff Blumenthal, Managing Director of West Coast Sales for Schwab Advisor Services, and I’m joined, today with Tina Kerr from the Schwab Advisor Services Service and Client Support group.  Morning.

TINA KERR:  Good morning.

JEFF:  So I know you’ve been a Schwab over 10 years, and you spend a lot of time with clients.  What’s a typical conversation with a client? 

On-screen text:
Tina Kerr
Senior Team Manager, Service

TINA:  So the conversations are different every day.  It’s part of what I actually love about it, is that it’s never the same.  A lot of them are some of the, ‘I need help doing this.’  ‘I need help doing that.’ They call the service team.  And we get to act as their quarterback, advocating for them with all of our different departments working with New Accounts, Retirement Services, making sure that those business partners understand the advisor relationship and, we really get to act, again, for the advocate for the advisor and their client, making sure that we’re working to get the best possible solution.  

We get to know our advisors, their children, even cheering on the same sports teams and going through that.  I just had an email from a client who we’re talking about the recent hockey playoffs, and making sure… or talking about those.  So it’s just building those relationships over the phone that we prefer. But we do have, of course, the electronic methods of getting in touch with us for those that prefer that.  Maybe they’re on the road and they can only communicate through email. We have secure email messaging that they can communicate through that, as well.

JEFF: Does Schwab do anything to measure service?

TINA:  Yeah, so we go out to our clients, with a third party, and ask them to rate what they think of service. And we are the leading custodian in that, and it’s something that we take very serious.  Myself, as a manager, I follow up with the folks who respond to those surveys, asking for feedback, and not just whenever they respond to a survey, but on a continual basis, making sure, again, that we are making… that our service is what it is that they need.  So it’s not just a one-time thing where we check in. It’s an ongoing relationship, again, making sure that we’re meeting their needs.

JEFF:  What do you think differentiates service at Schwab?

TINA: It’s our culture.  We really strive to see things through the clients’ eyes, again making sure that the client is taken care of, making sure that the advisor can really service the clients in the way that they want to. Each of our advisors are different, and so we need to make sure that we are tailoring our service so that they can serve their clients in the way that they see fit.

JEFF:  Can you talk a little bit about how you hire employees?

TINA:  So we have a very high tenure on our service teams.  We work very hard to hire the individuals who are here to service clients.  It’s about customer service, client service, not necessarily, you know, knowing everything about the industry.  It’s ‘Are you going to be there to support our clients and provide the highest level of customer service?’  And we work very hard. Of course, there are folks who we’ll promote and move on within the organization, but we work hard for the succession planning it’s a focus, making sure that we have the right folks to move in when somebody does move on.

JEFF:  So we talked a little bit about advisor technology. What kind of technology is available for end clients?

TINA:  The end clients have access to the Schwab Alliance website, and then they can also do the mobile app, as well.  This allows them to view their accounts easily, also allows them to approve electronic authorizations of money movements, which is just a fast and secure way to be able to get their money.

JEFF:  When you work with new advisors that have transitioned out of an independent broker-dealer what are the big a-ha’s that are different about workflow or our approach?

TINA:  Yeah.  I think the big thing is that they’re not alone.  I know that sometimes it’s scary for them kind of thinking that they’re going to branch off onto their own, doing their own business, but Schwab is here to support them. That’s what our business is and we do it well according to our clients. So they’re not alone. It’s something that we will help them through, and, they will be happier on the other side being able to service their clients the way that they want to.

JEFF:  Tina, thanks you for your time this morning.  It sounds like you have a lot of passion, ah, about serving advisors, and, ah, appreciate all your feedback today.

TINA:  Yeah, a pleasure being here.

JEFF:  All right.

TINA:  Thank you.

JEFF:  Thanks.

DISCLOSURES:
Information as of May 16, 2017.
 
Information included during this video is intended to be an overview and is subject to change.
 
Schwab does not provide legal, regulatory or compliance advice. Consult professionals in these fields to address your specific circumstance.

Clients refer to advisors who custody with Schwab Advisor Services.
 
Schwab Advisor Services™ serves independent investment advisors and includes the custody, trading, and support services of Schwab.
 
Independent investment advisors are not owned by, affiliated with, or supervised by Schwab.
 
©2017 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (“Schwab”). All rights reserved. Member SIPC. (0917-7028)

On-screen text:
Schwab Advisor Services™
Advisor Transition Services

On-screen text:
Julian Lopez
Managing Director, Advisor Services Business Development

JULIAN LOPEZ: Hello, my name is Julian Lopez, Managing Director of Schwab Advisor Services. Matt, thank you for joining us.

MATT FARIES: Sure. Glad to be here.

JULIAN: Director of Advisor Transition Services. It’s going to be a fun conversation; looking forward to spending some time here with you.

MATT: Me, too. Thanks for having me.

JULIAN: So let’s jump right in. When you think about your role and what you do, what do you particularly enjoy about what you bring as far as resources to advisors?

On-screen text:
Matt Faries
Managing Director, Advisor Transition Services

MATT: Yeah, so great question. There’s a lot to it that I enjoy, hard to narrow it down to one piece, in particular. But I would say, really, for me, it’s the onset of working with an advisor team, seeing them kind of see their dream come to reality.

JULIAN: How long have you been at Schwab now?

MATT: So I’ve been at Schwab 27 years…

JULIAN: All within Convergent Services?

MATT: Within Convergent Services about seven years now.

JULIAN: And so when you think about your role describe to a prospect who maybe is unfamiliar with what we do within your team…

MATT: Sure.

JULIAN: …what, exactly, that you and your team does for them.

MATT: Sure. Yeah, so I would say about 10 years ago we kind realized the need for separate teams to kind of help advisors during this transition process, like planning the actual conversion process, that transitioning for their firm. And so my whole job is dedicated to that conversation, and really my role is a project manager for that conversion, itself, right? So every advisor has a different model, every advisor team has a different need, a different structure. So I put together a list that says from ‘A to Z here are all the pieces that you’re going to need to look at, here are the priorities, here’s the timeline.’ That way they feel like as we’re moving close to that, quote, target date of that move nothing’s going to surprise them, right?

JULIAN: We’re taking an advisor from one side and kind of helping them bridge their current experience to what their experience might be at Schwab. Any one or two things that you would think about to tell an advisor ‘These… these are items that you want to be thinking about early in the process.’?

MATT: Each move is a little bit different. I think, first and foremost, ‘What is the most important piece? Why are you making this move?’ Right? ‘Is this for your clients?’ ‘Is this to meet, you know, new clients, go after clients that you haven’t necessarily been able to service in the past?’ ‘I think figuring out that marketing strategy, what your new vision is going to be, what your new strategy will be, how you’re going to grow your business, do you want to grow your business, what is the whole purpose of doing this’ is one of the key pieces. And then really the other important pieces is just being engaged in the process.

JULIAN: How do you prepare, how do you educate them on the ability to understand the different resources that are available to them?

MATT: Oftentimes, teams don’t really realize, number one, what that RIA model looks like, what it’s going to look like at Schwab. So, yeah, first and foremost, I have a checklist that I run through that as I mentioned earlier, kind of runs the gamut of here are all the things that we want to look at. We have in-depth research and training modules that we can show them, and so we start that training towards the end as they’re getting ramped up to start this new business. But, certainly, we’re pulling in specific product experts and so forth to introduce them to what our capabilities are, so that they understand them.

JULIAN: How would you position Schwab and what you do within your team, specifically, versus what we see and hear about in the industry.

MATT: This is a team that we put together over the last 10- to 15 years now, really, that’s solely dedicated to the conversion process . And we’ve built-out that process. We’ve built-out what that structure needs to look like, what that support needs to look like, beyond site support, if necessary, for these conversions. We’ve actually talked with other advisors who have gone through some of our competitors and seen what they have or have not done, and, certainly, feel like we’re… our product is much better, much more competitive from that standpoint.

JULIAN: So to that point, approximately, conversions and assets that you may or your team has worked on, been involved with over the last few years, do you have an idea as to what that looks like from a magnitude perspective?

MATT: Yeah, so from an overall perspective, I think we’re around 2,300 to 2,400 conversions, so teams, if you will, and I think around 190 billion in assets. So, certainly, a lot of experience, I think.

JULIAN: So let’s talk about the top two or three questions that you might get.

MATT: Ah, ‘What am I not thinking of?’

JULIAN: Yeah.

MATT: Right? ‘What am I missing?’ ‘How do I…’

JULIAN: I don’t know what I don’t know.

MATT: Right.

JULIAN: Yeah.

MATT: ‘How hard is the transition?’ Right? ‘How quickly can it happen?’ ‘How do I know my clients are going to come over?’ So it’s helping them kind of understand their book as deeply as possible.

JULIAN: How do you help them mentally prepare to take this leap?

MATT: It can get stressful. And it’s really pulling in our team that has that experience, sitting down with advisor. I’ve gone to advisors’ homes, you know, after hours, late at night…

JULIAN: Huh.

MATT: …to kind of sit down and walk through a project plan and make sure they have that comfort. But we do weekly calls, right, where we’ll call in and check in with the advisor or the team to make sure that they feel like everything is going according to plan. I really think helps give them the confidence and that everything is going to be okay, right? And to give them solid examples of what we’ve seen really helps.

JULIAN: You can tell that you’re passionate about the relationships.

MATT: Yeah. Yeah.

JULIAN: How to get people to get to do what they do best.

MATT: It’s great. I mean, they… to be honest, it is so rewarding to see how exciting this process is…

JULIAN: Yeah.

MATT: …to see the advisors, how excited they get, but even more so, their clients because I know I keep hitting on this, but that fear of what their clients are going…

JULIAN: Right.

MATT: …to say, and…

JULIAN: Right.

MATT: …you know, oftentimes, the client’s like, ‘What took you so long?’ You know?

JULIAN: Yeah.

MATT: And, ‘You know, we were waiting for you to do this.’ And ‘We’re so happy for you.’ And they’re bringing in cakes and cookies. I mean, how great is that?

JULIAN: So, Matt, what is the one thing that comes top of mind around what you want advisors to know about you or your team?

MATT: Yeah. I guess top of mind the one thing for them to know is that it’s going to be okay…

JULIAN: Yeah.

MATT: …that we’re going to help them, we will be there, we’re not going to leave them, we’re not going to go away, we are absolutely dedicated to making this process work. We don’t have other jobs. I don’t do this on the side. This is… I am fully dedicated to helping these advisors through this transition process.

JULIAN: Matt, thanks for that perspective and all the…

MATT: Yeah.

JULIAN: …other perspectives. Really appreciate you taking time out of your busy day…

MATT: Yeah, you got it.

JULIAN: …to join us. I know you’re going to have some advisors here actually visiting our facility shortly.

MATT: Yep. Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. So you bet, thanks for your time, as well.

JULIAN: So thanks for joining us…

MATT: Appreciate it.

JULIAN: All right.

MATT: Okay.

Elyn Davis

Managing Director, Transition Consultant, Schwab Advisor Services

Many advisors will say verbatim, ‘We don't know what we don't know.' And that's where our experience comes in.

Your guides to independence.

How do you go independent?

My role as a transition consultant and that of my team is to really break down what can be a complex and an anxiety-ridden process, and really simplify it for them.

The fear of clients not moving with an advisor is…is a very big concern, and… and rightly so, but what we find is they have very, very high success rate.  And they consider us a SWAT team. We come in, we deploy, you know, we really dig in deep and…and we work those long hours, along with the advisors.

Brian Jack

Managing Director, Pinnacle Peak Private Client Group

They really are right there holding your hand through that entire process, right down to, ‘Are you ready with the resignation letter?  Is it all printed out? Are you ready to go?'

It's a great feeling to see advisors reach their goals. We've had experiences where advisors are tearing up. They're just so happy that they've finally done it, it's been successful, and they just really appreciate all of the…the help and support that we've provided along the way.

I help advisors realize their dreams.

advisorservices.schwab.com/GetAnswers

Disclosures

The information included in this video is intended to be general and is subject to change.

Independent investment advisors are not owned by, affiliated with, or supervised by Schwab.

The RIAs (Registered Investment Advisors) and their representatives use Schwab for custody, trading, and operational support.

The above-mentioned firm and its employees are not affiliated with or employees of Schwab.  The mention of these third parties should not be construed as a recommendation, endorsement of, or sponsorship by Schwab.  You must decide whether to hire any firm and the appropriateness of its services for you or your firm.  Schwab does not supervise third-party firms and takes no responsibility to monitor the services they provide to you.

©2016 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. ("Schwab").  All rights reserved.  Member SIPC (www.sipc.org).  Schwab Advisor Services™ includes the custody, trading, and support services of Schwab. AHA (0416-ERJ8)

Title

Logo

Over 7500 independent financial advisors depend on Schwab. Here’s why.

Don
Don Garman
Mirador Capital Partners

Schwab allows me to build my brand, my way and they treat me like I treat my clients.

Stasia
Stasia Washington
First Foundation Advisors

We’re growing because Charles Schwab is constantly at the table asking questions on ‘what can we do more, better, or less?”

Kent
Kent Skornia
Krilogy Financial

Without a company like Schwab, a small firm like mine could’ve never existed. They immediately give you a platform that allows you to compete against anyone in the industry.

Sheila
Sheila Schroeder
Mosaic Financial Partners, Inc. 

How do you take a firm like mine from $600 million to $1.2 billion? There’s a process behind it and what Schwab has done is taught us the process. They’re helping our firm be the best firm that we can be to the clients that we want to serve. 

Disclosure/Logo: 04
Charles Schwab
Own your tomorrow®

Charles Schwab is proud to support more independent financial advisors and their clients than anyone else. 

©2017 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Member SIPC. (0417-XTYW)

Disclosure: Mirador Capital Partners, First Foundation Advisors, Krilogy Financial and Mosaic Financial Partners are not owned by or affiliated with Schwab, and their personnel are not employees or agents of Schwab. This is not a referral to, endorsement or recommendation of, or testimonial for the advisors with respect to its investment advisory or other services. Schwab Advisor Services serves independent investment advisors and includes the custody, trading and support services of Schwab. Independent investment advisors are not owned by, affiliated with or supervised by Schwab. ©2017 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (“Schwab”) All rights reserved. Member SIPC. (0417-XTYW) 

The named advisor and advisory firm are independent and not affiliated with Schwab. Their mention is not, and should not be construed as a recommendation, endorsement or sponsorship by Schwab.  Schwab does not endorse or supervise advisors and does not prepare or verify information distributed by advisors.

The views expressed are for general information purposes only and are not intended to be a substitute for specific individualized legal or compliance advice.  Where specific advice is necessary or appropriate, Schwab recommends consultation with a professional.  Examples described are for illustrative purposes only and does not represent a guarantee of future performance or success and may not be representative of your experience.

Schwab Advisor Services serves independent investment advisors and includes the custody, trading and support services of Schwab.  Independent investment advisors are not owned by, affiliated with or supervised by Schwab.

©2014 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. ("Schwab").  All rights reserved.  Member SIPC.  (0914-5586)]
 

[Embrace life as an RIA.]
[Charles Schwab]
[Own your tomorrow™]

[Three Atlanta advisors took control of their futures.]

MAN1: The RIA space was compelling to us because we felt like we were building something.

[They dreamed big and chose independence.]

MAN2: You just know that this is something that you’re creating.  You become a firm where you’re an advocate for your client.

[They found freedom in the RIA model.]

MAN1:  We have no constraints because we have ownership, and to be able to control every aspect of the business was extremely compelling to us.

[Now they decide what really matters.]

MAN 3: Everybody at every level of the firm is focused on client service.

MAN2:  All you need is an entrepreneurial spirit. The rest of it will come.

MAN4:  And I have more time to do the things that I want to do.

MAN5:  Yeah, I think helping people feels good, right?

[Charles Schwab]
[Own your tomorrow™]

[Explore independence.
advisorservices.schwab.com/DreamBig]

[Charles Schwab
Important Disclosures

Meant for institutional audiences.

The information included in this video is intended to be general and is subject to change.

Independent investment advisors are not owned by, affiliated with, or supervised by Schwab.

The RIAs (registered investment advisors) and their representatives use Schwab for custody, trading, and operational support.

The above-mentioned firm and their employees are not affiliated with or employees of Schwab.  The mention of these third parties should not be construed as a recommendation, endorsement of, or sponsorship by Schwab.  You must decide whether to hire any firm and the appropriateness of their services for you or your firm. Schwab does not supervise third-party firms and takes no responsibility to monitor the services they provide to you.  

The views expressed are those of the third party.  Experiences expressed are no guarantee of future performance or success and may not be representative of your experience. Schwab makes no representation about the accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for any given situation.  Past performance is not an indicator of future results.  Some of the statements have been edited.

©2014 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. ("Schwab").  All rights reserved.  Member SIPC (www.sipc.org). Schwab Advisor Services™ includes the custody, trading, and support services of Schwab.

AHA (0414-2647) 04/14]

This is a transcript of unscripted speech, rather than written prose, and therefore should not be relied on for grammatical accuracy. This is not a verbatim transcript. Parts have been slightly modified to improve readability.

Berkeley Capital Partners is a registered investment advisor in Atlanta, Georgia. 
Chris Eddy, CFP®, Partner, Investment Officer, Berkeley Capital Partners 
Tony Palazzo, CFA, Berkeley Capital Partners 
Dan Newberg, CFP®, Partner, Chief Compliance Officer, Berkeley Capital Partners 
Video Transcript

We manage all of the assets of our firm in house. We have grown our business through family, friends and their referrals and we treat everyone as such.

Choosing to go independent was a conscious decision to get away from having mangers manage us.

The day we actually all agreed that this is the path we wanted to pursue, the major pro was the client and you’re able to do what’s in the best interest of the client and there’s nothing that prevents you from doing your job.

Schwab is agnostic as to how you manage assets. They really leave it up to you to do what you think is best for your clients.

Schwab provided a significant amount of resources and had an integral part of our successful transition. Transitioning a business is never easy, it’s never without stress. One of our own fears was us being responsible for our own compliance. When we moved to Schwab they had a team that came in, they helped us identify those issues and it turned out to be very helpful.

Communication with the clients relative to the move ended up being significantly easier than any of us expected. They said, “Well do you really think it’s the right thing for me?” And we could say unequivocally yes.

I have the ability to manage money any way that I see fit.

Clients can sense our passion and our excitement about being able to do things we couldn’t do before.

The clients that were our clients that were entrepreneurs really started referring us more business than they normally had. Business owners respond to other business owners. Our firm’s experienced the best growth rate in our history. I consider this more than just a business, you know we consider it like a large extended family.

It’s more of a team feel and less of a competitive feel. The ultimate goal is just serving the client and everybody will do fine, you know if we do that.

There’s tons of freedom being independent, um with the technology you have access to, you can work from anywhere and still get great results.

So the fact that I can do my job wherever I need to be has allowed us to travel more, spend more time. I try to work from home 1 to 2 days, maybe 3 days a month.

Because I now run my own business I have that freedom now to do what I think is best for me and my family.

Don’t focus so much on the fear of the move and the fear of the front end but focus on what you can do on the back end and long-term, you know the trajectory will put you on for your customers and for yourself personally.

We don’t know how it’s gonna all shake out but we do think we’re in a better position to be agile.

Being independent isn’t for everybody, you have to have the right business mix but if you do, I think with the way the industry’s changing, you should look into it and you should probably look into it as soon as possible.

Important Disclosures

Information included during this video is intended to be an overview and is subject to change. Experiences expressed by advisors may not be representative of the experience of other advisors and are not a guarantee of future success.

Berkeley Capital Partners, is not owned by or affiliated with Schwab, and its personnel are not employees or agents of Schwab. This video is not a referral to, endorsement or recommendation of, or testimonial for the advisor with respect to its investment advisory or other services.

Schwab does not supervise third-party firms and takes no responsibility to monitor the services they provide to you. Experiences expressed are no guarantee of future performance or success and may not be representative of your experience.

Schwab does not provide legal, regulatory or compliance advice. Consult professionals in these fields to address your specific circumstance.

Schwab Advisor Services™ serves independent investment advisors and includes the custody, trading, and support services of Schwab.

Independent investment advisors are not owned by, affiliated with, or supervised by Schwab.

©2017 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (“Schwab”). All rights reserved. Member SIPC.

(0617-761G)