Robb Baldwin, founder and CEO, TradePMR recently took the stage at MarketCounsel Summit 2024. During the session titled, The Future of RIA Custody: How the Robinhood-TradePMR Acquisition Could Shape the Industry, Robb was joined by Steve Quirk, Chief Brokerage Officer at Robinhood. The session was moderated by Ian Wenik, editor at CityWire RIA. The byline recaps Robb’s comments shared with the audience at the conference.
For decades, the advisor industry has discussed the challenges they face when assets transition to a new generation. The magnitude of what’s at stake is enormous: over the next two decades, an estimated $73 trillion in assets is expected to transfer to younger investors, with another $12 trillion hitting the balance sheets of charitable institutions.1
Taken in sum, it could be an immense opportunity for advisors to display their estate and tax planning acumen, implement strategies for efficient gifting, and — perhaps most importantly — provide advice to a new generation of wealth accumulators.
Despite the sheer quantity of wealth on the cusp of transition, however, advisors are still searching for inroads to this new generations of investors. Personalized communication and a solid proficiency in social media will likely be key pillars for building a multi-generational practice.
We’re ready to provide one more avenue for onboarding the next generation.
By bringing our fully functional custodial and portfolio management platform to millions of new investors, we’re aiming to introduce TradePMR’s financial advisors to a cohort of investors who, we believe, are eager for advice and familiar with investing.
In the past, financial services firms were usually the ones to acquire technology, by buying startups and making acquihires. Too often, those same firms seemed to struggle to meaningfully integrate and deliver on their potential.
TradePMR has a new opportunity. Equipped with the right resources, we are looking to create an unprecedented chance for our advisors to build unique businesses, with future and innovative success potentially at their fingertips.
In our opinion, it’s no secret that young investors are digital-first. We’ve noticed they are familiar with the ease of trading apps on their mobile devices, and with as little friction as possible. So, when they move their assets to an advisor, we believe, they expect the same friction-free, transparent and accessible experience that they had when their made their first trades. Robinhood has done, in my opinion, an excellent job of building a platform for the next generation of investors. Today they have more than 24 million customers, and roughly 75% of their clients are in the wealth accumulation stage of life and members of the millennial or Gen Z generations.²
When wealth gets passed from one generation to the next, it’s an extremely vulnerable period for an advisor. More than 70% of advisors lose their clients in the transition.³
But nearly 30% of advisors keep their next-generation clients and the assets they now have.³ What do they do differently? In many cases, the inroads they’ve built with younger investors and the investments they’ve made in their own businesses help them pass the test. We’re here to make those forward-thinking advisors even stronger.
At TradePMR, we’re helping advisors with tools to win and retain the next generation of clients and assets. The current industry landscape, dominated by a duopoly, in our opinion, isn’t good for investors and it isn’t good for advisors. It appears ripe for disruption.
Just as we did some 20 years ago, TradePMR is bringing new possibilities to the industry. When our advisors succeed, we succeed. That’s why we’re excited to bring next generation solutions to today’s generation of advisors.
For more than two decades, TradePMR has worked with growth-minded independent registered investment advisors (RIAs), providing innovative technology tools and support designed to transform their businesses. The privately-held brokerage and custodian services provider (Member FINRA/SIPC), based in Gainesville, Fla., works to streamline investment advisors' operations through comprehensive custodial, operational, and trading support. For more information, visit www.TradePMR.com.
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1 "Cerulli Anticipates $84 Trillion in Wealth Transfers Through 2045," Cerulli Associates, January 20, 2022, https://www.cerulli.com/press-releases/cerulli-anticipates-84-trillion-in-wealth-transfers-through-2045
² "Robinhood To Acquire TradePMR," Robinhood Markets, Inc., November 19, 2024, https://newsroom.aboutrobinhood.com/robinhood-to-acquire-tradepmr/
³ "Aging Boomers Bring Intergenerational Planning to the Forefront," Cerulli Associates, July 19, 2021, https://www.cerulli.com/press-releases/aging-boomers-bring-intergenerational-planning-to-the-forefront