TD AMERITRADE Offers Tool for Advisers Considering Independence

The new Business Evaluator is a Web-based tool aiming to ease the adviser move to independence, said TD AMERITRADE Institutional, a division of TD AMERITRADE Holding Corporation. The tool allows advisers to design a “customized action plan” by comparing business models, estimating expenses, and identifying their motivations and strengths.

Advisers will receive a personalized assessment comparing the potential economic opportunity of different affiliation options, including wirehouse representative, affiliation with an independent broker/dealer, or full independence as a registered investment adviser (RIA), the firm said.

TD AMERITRADE noted that its seen the number of advisers interested in joining a starting a RIA firm double from 720 in 2008 to more than 1,500 in 2009 (see “RIAs Say They Continue to Poach from Wirehouses”).

“More advisers are looking for transition support as the equity market and business environment improves and brokers gain more confidence to approach their clients about leaving full-commission wirehouses. In fact, we’ve seen a 24% increase in the number of breakaway brokers joining TD AMERITRADE in just the first six months of the year,” said Tom Bradley, president, TD AMERITRADE Institutional.