In Ep. 167 of the Mullooly Asset Show, Tom addresses the new rumors of Charles Schwab purchasing TD Ameritrade, and what brokerage firms merging should mean to the end client. It’s a person-to-person business, and your relationship with your advisor shouldn’t change!
**UPDATE** On November 25, 2019 (four days after this original post), Charles Schwab announced a definitive agreement to purchase TD Ameritrade in full, for $26 billion in stock.
Show Notes
‘Charles Schwab is in Talks to Buy TD Ameritrade’ – CNBC
Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and You – Transcript
Tom Mullooly: In episode 167 we’ve got some hot news and so please watch this right away.
Welcome to the Mullooly Asset Show. I’m your host, Tom Mullooly. Thanks for tuning in. We’re recording this at about 9:30 on Thursday, November 21st. We woke up this morning to hear news of a possible merger between Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade. We’ve already gotten calls from clients. What does this mean? My cell phone has been blowing up with people asking me, what is this? How is this going to impact us? Bottom line is I don’t think it’s going to impact us at all.
Mullooly Asset Management just so happens to have assets on both platforms, TD Ameritrade and Schwab, so we’re familiar with both. We don’t know at the time of this recording if a deal is actually going to happen. Nothing’s been announced by either side yet, so we don’t know if there’s a deal. We don’t have any details. We don’t know what it’s going to mean. I will predict however that if there is a deal, someone’s going to come out in the first ten days and they’re going to say nothing is going to change, which is a lie because everything changes and it’s usually for the good, but people have a hard time dealing with change.
Speaking of which, I will tell you that I’ve been in the business for 33 years working with individuals just like you who are watching this video, and I will tell you the first firm that I worked for was EF Hutton, no longer there. The second firm I worked for was Shearson, no longer there. Then I had a very small side trip to Bear Stearns, no longer there. I went to Lehman Brothers, no longer there. Then I went to Dean Witter, no longer there. Dean Witter became part of Morgan Stanley. They’re still there. I left Morgan Stanley in 2002 and when I became a fee-only registered investment advisor, our original custodian was Waterhouse Securities, no longer there. That merged with TD Ameritrade in 2007 and there’s a possibility that if it doesn’t happen sooner, then somewhere down the road they may no longer be there. It’s okay. With all of these firms disappearing, what’s remained? Me and you, and that’s what this business is all about.
So there’s going to be plenty of people who feel that they can trade their stocks into oblivion by doing it themselves, and those people, we may never help. But for everyone else that’s out there, you’re working with an advisor because you want to have a second set of eyes. You want to have someone who’s watching this on a daily basis, and it really comes down to the relationship, and that’s what this business is all about. It’s about people. And so I don’t really care what custodian we’re working with, whether it’s Schwab, or TD Ameritrade, or whoever. It’s really going to come down to you and I working together.
Our firm listening, whether it’s myself, or Tim, or Casey, or Brendan, or even Donna on the phone. It’s going to be us listening to what’s happening to you, what problems you’re going through, and what kind of issues can we work through. How can we help you? So that part of the business will never change. It’s a people business.
Thanks for watching. Episode 167. Talk to you again soon.
If you would like a PDF version of this transcript, please follow this link for a download!