Home > Blogs > TD Ameritrade’s Tom Nally Discusses Robo-tech with T3’s Joel Bruckenstein

TD Ameritrade’s Tom Nally Discusses Robo-tech with T3’s Joel Bruckenstein

Submitted by Technology Tools for Today on October 23rd, 2014


Joel Bruckenstein recently had an opportunity to chat with Tom Nallly, the President of TD Ameritrade Institutional, about his take on robo-advisors and how his firm is positioning their technology to help advisors compete in a world of rapidly evolving technologies. Bruckenstein has known Nally for a number of years, and says Nally has always been a straight shooter, which tends to make for interesting interviews. This one was no exception.

Nally made it clear from the outset that his firm was not currently looking to partner with a single robo-advisor platform, nor were they planning to build their own: “We don’t want to pick a single horse in this race,” he said.  “We want to be the stable.” Nally is referring to the fact that a number of robo-advisor technology platforms that serve advisors are already integrated with or in the process of integrating with the TD Ameritrade Institutional VEO platform. These include Jemstep, NestEgg Wealth, Trizic, and Upside Advisor. In addition, a number of financial firms have built their own robo-advisor platforms and integrated them with VEO. These include Edelman Online, Financial Engines, Financial Guard, FutureAdvisor, Savant, and SigFig.

“We are all about open architecture,” says Nally. “When it comes to electronic solutions for the end client, one size does not fit all.” TD Ameritrade Institutional is positioning their platform as the one that offers advisors multiple options, much as the VEO Open Access platform offers advisors multiple options of CRM, financial planning, portfolio management and other third party technology solutions.

Nally sees these new technology providers of electronic solutions targeting the end client as an extension of the existing VEO ecosystem. He was quick to point out that the online version of iRebal, which TD Ameritrade Institutional offers for free to TDA advisors, allows advisors to manage portfolios efficiently and create scale in a tax sensitive manner. That, combined with the third party software already available on VEO, and these new client facing robo-technologies, plus the TD Ameritrade custodial platform, create a potent inventory of technologies of which advisors can avail themselves.

When Bruckenstein suggested that many of the consumer facing robo-advisors provided a consumer experience to that which most advisors offered, Nally didn’t pull any punches: “In many cases, the end client experience [for clients of advisors] is not what it needs to be. Advisors need to up their game,” he said.

Nally also indicated that the experience of large financial services firms indicates that independent advisors have some catching up to do. “Somewhere between 95-98% of our retail engagements are now conducted online.” Our guess at T3 is that the majority of independent RIAs are still conducting 95-98% of their business offline. That needs to change. “The next generation of investors will put much less emphasis on face-to-face interactions,” says Nally. “Advisors need to get with the program.”

We at T3 couldn’t agree more!

Website Design For Financial Services Professionals | Copyright 2024 AdvisorWebsites.com. All rights reserved