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RIA Edge Podcast: RIA Megatrends with Schwab’s Tom BradleyRIA Edge Podcast: RIA Megatrends with Schwab’s Tom Bradley

This episode of the RIA Edge podcast provides advisors with a view into the trends that are influencing and impacting growth across the RIA landscape.

Mark Bruno, Managing Director, Wealth Management

June 21, 2023

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This special episode of the RIA Edge podcast features the fireside chat between industry veteran Tom Bradley, managing director at Schwab Advisor Services, and Informa’s Mark Bruno, recorded at the RIA Edge Conference. They provide benchmarks for growth rates and a high-level view of the “levers” that top firms are using to accelerate growth. In addition, it addresses some of the challenges even the most successful firms have experienced from their growth—and how they have set their firms up to solve for these issues and continue to grow their businesses.

Mark and Tom also discuss:

  • 93% of firms in Schwab’s Outlook research expect to grow over the next five years, and the average growth rate of net new assets is 17%. What will differentiate the firms that outperform and exceed these expectations?

  • If I am looking to assess the quality of my firm’s growth—and more specifically, my future growth potential—what questions should I be asking? How do I connect this with the potential investments I might need to make in human capital, technology, marketing or business development?

  • Many RIAs have doubled, or even tripled in size, over the last decade. What are some of the most common challenges that this growth as caused for firms?

  • While thousands of RIAs have seen their assets under management swell over the last decade, “true growth”—growth excluding market appreciation and M&A—was incremental for many. What are the most successful firms in the industry doing to create intentional and repeatable growth?

Resources:

 RIA Edge Podcast 

Connect With Mark Bruno:

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About Our Guest:

Tom Bradley is Managing Director for Schwab Advisor Services and oversees the division that provides custodial support services for independent Registered Investment Advisors with up to $2 billion in assets custodied at Schwab. He is also a leader in driving the ongoing integration between Schwab Advisor Services and TD Ameritrade Institutional.

Prior to joining Schwab, Bradley spent over three decades at TD Ameritrade, much of that time in the service of independent advisors. He served as president of TD Ameritrade’s Institutional business for 12 years prior to becoming president of the firm’s Retail Distribution unit, which is where he spent his last five years at the firm. He is a graduate of the University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business.

 

Listen to the RIA Edge Podcast

About the Author

Mark Bruno

Managing Director, Wealth Management, Informa Connect

Mark Bruno is Managing Director, Wealth Management at Informa Connect. In his role, Mr. Bruno leads the company’s Wealth Management media and event properties, which currently consists of WealthManagement.com, Inside ETFs and Inside WealthStack. He is also charged with driving several innovative new community and advisor-based initiatives, including the launch of the new RIA Edge podcast, event and webcast series.

In addition, Mr. Bruno is overseeing strategic partnerships and acquisitions to accelerate Informa’s growth within the financial advisor and wealth management communities. Mr. Bruno brings over 20 years of experience in the wealth management and asset management industries to Informa, including prominent leadership roles in industry media, research, and consulting organizations.

Before joining Informa Connect, Mr. Bruno was a Managing Director at ECHELON Partners, where he provided investment banking, consulting and valuation services to wealth managers. Mr. Bruno specialized in helping RIAs with a range of strategic initiatives, and his areas of expertise include organizational design and assessments, compensation consulting and succession and continuity solutions.

Prior to joining ECHELON, Mr. Bruno was the Managing Director and Associate Publisher at InvestmentNews, where he was responsible for overseeing a wide range of businesses, including IN’s research, content strategy, digital, custom publishing and sales groups. Mr. Bruno was with InvestmentNews for 12 years and helped establish the company as the leading B2B media brand in the wealth management industry. He played an integral role in the sale of InvestmentNews from Crain Communication to Bonhill Plc in 2018.

Mr. Bruno is an award-winning journalist, author and researcher who has written and edited for a number of financial publications over the past two decades, including InvestmentNews, Financial Week, Pensions & Investments and U.S. Banker. Mr. Bruno has also been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Chicago Tribune for his expertise in wealth and investment management. Mr. Bruno has received numerous accolades for his writing and reporting, including the American Business Media's prestigious Jesse H. Neal Award, and for his breaking news coverage and analysis of the financial services industry by The Society of American Business Editors and Writers. Mr. Bruno is the author of Save Now or Die Trying: Achieving Long-Term Wealth In Your 20s and 30s, one of the top-selling retirement planning books of 2007.