Prudential Securities in April began a pilot of a second version of its heavily marketed Advisor fee account. Advisor II drops the 24.95 dollars transaction charge levied on Advisor I trades and allows clients to grant discretion.
The new version is available in 70 of the firm's 270 domestic branches. Fees are negotiable. The firm's suggested fee schedule begins at 2.5 percent on the minimum account size of 100,000 dollars.
Advisor I is nondiscretionary with fees starting at 1.5 percent and an account minimum of 50,000 dollars. The offering has attracted 5 dollars billion in assets, 30 percent of which are from new clients.
Both versions of the account offer online access and trading. Advisor II has no specific limits on how much a client can trade, but active day traders won't be allowed.
"The [new] program is working out great," says a Prudential broker in one of the test offices. Brokers referred to the 24.95 dollar fee as "the nuisance fee," the rep adds.
