TD Ameritrade continues to build on its Veo One platform, which is its key technology for custody clients, and the firm plans even more advancements for 2019, according to Jon Patullo, managing director of technology solutions for TD Ameritrade Institutional.
More automated new account opening tools will be offered through the Veo One platform. TD Ameritrade Institutional, based in Jersey City, N.J., recently rolled out new application programming interfaces that connect Veo One with third-party vendors, such as customer relationship management systems, as well as with tools developed in-house by some advisory firms.
The integrations allow advisors to more easily push through new customer data to TD Ameritrade electronically without the need to manually re-enter data, yielding a better experience and reducing opportunity for errors, Patullo says. Next year, the firm expects to deliver a fully paperless account-opening service for even greater efficiencies.
Also built into Veo One is iRebal. A program that rebalances portfolios according to the RIA’s investment approach, iRebal is designed for tax-efficient rebalancing, cash management and tax-loss harvesting. This year it was beefed up with a feature that facilitates covered call options strategies.
Advisors particularly like TD Ameritrade’s Model Market Center, which includes a menu of third-party investment models in a central location, Patullo says. As providers update their models, changes are automatically communicated to advisors.
Model Market Center can save advisors time they would otherwise spend building models from scratch while retaining investment management fiduciary control and responsibility, flexibility and trading discretion, TD Ameritrade says.
“We are leveraging artificial intelligence to develop a digital service agent, one that can help advisors get the answers they need whenever they need them,” the company says. “Our virtual agent, developed by the people behind Apple’s ‘Siri,’ initially will interact with advisors through direct messaging.” Voice activated technology is still being developed, the company says.
Fidelity
A custodian is more than just a custodian today, according to David Canter, head of the RIA segment at Fidelity Clearing & Custody Solutions.
“The role of the custodian has evolved beyond safe custody of assets,” Canter says. “As advisors go up the value stack, so do their custodians. We’re doing more and more on a consultative basis,” rather than just providing technology.