Independent Investment Advisors Demonstrate Demand for Schwab Advisor Transition Support Services
April 01 2005 - 12:30PM
PR Newswire (US)
Independent Investment Advisors Demonstrate Demand for Schwab
Advisor Transition Support Services More Than $10 Billion Dollars
in Assets Under Management Potentially for Sale by Advisors Using
the Service SAN FRANCISCO, April 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Since
its debut 18 months ago, Schwab Institutional's Advisor Transition
Support has exceeded $10 billion in total assets under management
of independent investment advisors who have indicated an interest
in selling their businesses. Schwab Advisor Transition Support
offers a suite of services to help independent advisors plan their
mergers, acquisitions and internal succession, including a
subscription-based listing service for buyers and sellers of
investment advisor firms and a job opportunities posting service
known as Career Opportunities. Currently, the Schwab Advisor
Transition Support listing service contains listings for 85 advisor
firms with more than $6 billion in assets for sale, and more than
250 buyer firms. In addition, several large firms seeking to sell
an additional $3 billion in assets under management are using the
service. Career Opportunities includes job candidate postings that
represent another $3 billion in potential business. Nearly 30
percent of the candidates on the service state that they maintain a
book of business ranging from $10 million to more than $500 million
in assets under management. "The success of Advisor Transition
Support has exceeded our expectations," said David DeVoe, director
of Advisor Transition Support at Schwab Institutional. "Although
the true measure of the program's success is the value we create
for each individual advisor using the service, we are delighted
that the infrastructure we've created has been embraced by hundreds
of advisors of varying sizes and stages of transition." Earlier
this month, Schwab Institutional concluded its sold-out workshop
series on transition planning that began in January. Schwab
Institutional hosted these workshops, where third-party experts
including consultant/investment bank Moss Adams LLP, the law firm
of Stark & Stark, and Quist Valuation guided 142 participants
through six two-day sessions designed to help them with mergers and
acquisitions and internal succession. Participants were not only
exposed to the fundamentals of mergers and acquisitions --
including planning, valuation, organization structure, legal and
taxes -- but also learned advanced deal structure strategies to
optimize these inter-related components. "It was one of the best
meetings I've ever attended," said George Mateyo of Carnegie
Capital Management, who attended a workshop in New York to learn
more about options for selling his Cleveland-based firm. "The
peer-to-peer interaction was exceptional, and the opportunity to
speak with the experts about my specific situation was immensely
valuable." Mark Soehn, one of three owners of Financial Solutions
Advisory Group in Chicago, had a very real opportunity to discuss
with the experts: he was in negotiations with a seller he had
identified through Schwab's listing service. "The third-party
experts helped me learn more about deal structure, legal agreements
and due-diligence -- all of which helped me accelerate the
acquisition and structure a deal that was better for both parties,"
he said. Schwab Advisor Transition Support was launched in November
2003 in order to offer advisor firms a wide array of resources to
help institutionalize their practices. The Advisor Transition
Support listing service (http://www.schwabtransition.com/) was
launched in January 2004 to provide independent advisor firms with
the ability to confidentially search and anonymously contact
candidates on the listing service interested in buying, selling or
merging their businesses. The Career Opportunities job listing
service began in October 2004 and allows job seekers such as trust
officers, bank and wirehouse brokers -- as well as marketing,
operations and investment management candidates -- to post
candidate profiles for review by hiring firms and to search for
current open positions with independent advisory firms. In addition
to the above, Schwab Advisor Transition Support also provides
information on preferred pricing referrals to industry experts,
institutions offering qualified advisors financing options for
internal successions, mergers and acquisitions, and a library of
articles and white papers on transition planning. About Schwab
Institutional Schwab Institutional, a division of Charles Schwab
& Co. Inc., is a leading provider of custodial, operational and
trading support for independent fee-based investment advisors.
Client assets custodied with Schwab Institutional increased 21
percent to $348 billion between Dec. 31, 2003 and Dec. 31, 2004.
These assets, managed by the approximately 5,000 independent
advisor firms Schwab Institutional serves, represent approximately
one-third of total customer assets custodied with The Charles
Schwab Corporation as of Dec. 31, 2004. About Charles Schwab The
Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE / Nasdaq: SCH), through its
operating subsidiaries, provides securities brokerage and financial
services to individual investors and the independent investment
advisors who work with them. With over 7 million individual
investor accounts and more than $1 trillion in client assets, The
Charles Schwab Corporation is one of the nation's largest financial
services firms. Its subsidiary Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.
provides a complete range of investment services and products,
including an extensive selection of mutual funds; financial
planning and investment advice; retirement plans; referrals to
independent fee-based investment advisors; and custodial,
operational and trading support for independent fee-based
investment advisors through its Schwab Institutional division. Its
subsidiary Charles Schwab Bank (member FDIC) provides banking and
mortgage services and products. The corporation's other operating
subsidiaries include U.S. Trust Corporation (member FDIC) and
CyberTrader(R), Inc. (member SIPC). These companies' Web sites can
be reached at http://www.schwab.com/, http://www.schwabbank.com/,
http://www.ustrust.com/, and http://www.cybertrader.com/. The
information provided here and on the web site
http://www.schwabadvisortransition.com/ ("Site") is for general
informational purposes only and is not intended to provide specific
financial, accounting, tax, legal or regulatory advice. Charles
Schwab & Co., Inc. ("Schwab") makes no representations as to
the appropriateness of the information available on this Site for
any given situation or the accuracy of information contained in the
Schwab Advisor Transition Support Listing Service. Schwab does not
warrant the value or condition of the businesses posted as
potential buyers and sellers on this Site. Schwab takes no
responsibility for investigating, supplementing, updating or
correcting such information. Through the Schwab Advisor Transition
Support service, Schwab may provide referrals to third party
professionals and financial institutions that may be of assistance
to advisors in transition planning process, including the
succession planning and sale or acquisition process. Advisors must
decide whether to hire or use the third parties and the
appropriateness of their services for the advisor. Schwab does not
supervise the third parties and takes no responsibility to monitor
the service they may provide to advisors. With regard to referrals
to lender, lenders have not committed to make credit available.
Each loan proposal will be evaluated by the lender on its own
merits according to the lender's underwriting standards. Please see
the Terms of Use (https://www.schwabtransition.com/termsofuse.asp )
for important terms and conditions governing use of this Site.
Member SIPC (0305-00354) DATASOURCE: Charles Schwab CONTACT: Alison
Wertheim of Charles Schwab & Co. Inc., +1-415-636-5812, or Web
site: http://www.schwab.com/ Web site:
http://www.schwabadvisortransition.com/
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