These offerings are aimed at different categories of financial advisors and are often minor adjustments to existing programs or efforts to catch up with competitors', says Bing Waldert, a director at Boston research and consulting firm Cerulli Associates.
Custodians grow by recruiting new financial advisors to their platform, attracting financial advisors from other custodians and helping teams already affiliated with them increase their asset levels.
"It's a competitive marketplace," Waldert says. Although one custodian is unlikely to introduce an offering that catapults it ahead of its current standing, firms do need to keep up with their competitors.
Schwab Advisor Services held about $590 billion in investor assets at the end of 2009, according to its most recent public filing. Fidelity's Institutional Wealth Services held about $430 billion in assets as of March 31. TD Ameritrade Institutional custodies about $100 billion in investor assets.
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