Wealth Advisers Set Up Shop With a Shared Back Office<br />“The channel has been growing so quickly.”<br />Founded on the principle of providing low-cost stock trades to individual investors, Charles Schwab’s growth in recent years has been propelled by its adviser<br />segment, which offers a wide array of custodial services to registered investment advisers as well as access to the Schwab mutual fund supermarket.<br />Just a click on any type of screen connects a Ritholtz adviser to Charles Schwab or TD Ameritrade, where a team of operations experts<br />keeps a hawk’s eye on the rapidly growing $532 million in client assets managed by Ritholtz Wealth, an independent financial adviser.<br />Now, sitting on more than $4 trillion in assets, registered investment advisers are posing a direct threat to the old model of huddling with brokers from Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanley<br />and following their advice — for a hefty fee, usually — about which stocks, bonds or mutual funds to buy.
