As TD Ameritrade advisors and their shoppers’ accounts have been about to transfer to the Charles Schwab platform as a part of the long-planned conversion over the Labor Day weekend, a couple of trade consultants advised ThinkAdvisor they have been conserving a watch out for any constructive or ominous indicators about whether or not the combination was working easily or not.

Schwab has been transferring accounts in teams since February. The transition to the Schwab platform scheduled for Labor Day Weekend, Sept. 2-5, represents the final main step to combine the 2 firms as a part of Schwab’s $22 billion acquisition of TD Ameritrade that closed in October 2020.

Under are eight of probably the most important points and different issues that advisors, consultants and others mentioned they have been searching for this weekend and the close to future, or that TD advisors needs to be searching for.

1. Will the conversion go as easily as Schwab, TD Ameritrade advisors and their shoppers hope?

“This has been within the works since November of 2019. I anticipate a clean transition this weekend,” mentioned Jay Coulter, president of Resilient Advisor and companion and chief funding officer at Resilient Wealth in Atlanta. “I anticipate it to be seamless for advisors who’ve ready.”

Coulter makes use of Altruist because the custodian and is working to additionally custody shopper property at Schwab.

Joel Bruckenstein, an skilled on utilized know-how for monetary professionals, writer of the T3 Expertise Hub and producer of the annual Expertise Instruments for In the present day (T3) Convention, advised ThinkAdvisor: “I anticipate it to go easily for the overwhelming majority of advisors. However in a venture of this dimension, there are sure to be some points. Provided that Schwab has been making ready for this for years, I anticipate a principally clean transition.”

Grier Rubeling, founder, proprietor and operator of consulting agency Advisor Transition Companies, mentioned she expects to “see all of the TD accounts hit the Schwab platform and for Schwab Advisor Heart to change into the system for which all new requests are made.”

However she mentioned of the combination’s success: “I undoubtedly suppose it’s going to be a combination. For individuals who have been already on the Schwab platform, I think about they are going to be extra geared up to deal with the brand new changes. For individuals who strictly used TD, they might want to be taught to navigate the brand new platform, and they’re going to have numerous questions.”

Not fairly as optimistic was Derek Notman, founder and CEO of Intrepid Wealth Companions in Madison, Wisconsin. He predicted “numerous issues will happen and [advisors] can be swamped with questions coming from shoppers not understanding what’s occurring and what they need to be doing.”

After seeing what his mother-in-law skilled lately along with her account, Notman mentioned: “It looks like a blended at finest integration. The tech felt wonky and the client help people didn’t appear to be up to the mark with every part.”

Marketing consultant Mark Tibergien, ex-CEO of BNY Mellon Pershing Advisor Options, predicted: “There’ll seemingly be errors. Advisors and repair people at Schwab should be ready and handle with a cool head. I’m positive Schwab will do what’s proper when errors or issues happen. All that mentioned, the expertise can be completely different for each advisors and shoppers.”

However Tibergien added: “The excellent news is that they have loads of choices for different custodians. I feel for this reason you see so many RIAs recommending a number of selections with their shoppers.”

2. Have TD advisors made positive to care for the little issues that is probably not so little?

Most TD advisors have seemingly alerted their shoppers concerning the shift to Schwab. Nevertheless it stays to be seen in the event that they’ve all taken care of small points — or not-so-small ones.