TD Ameritrade’s Veo dashboard gets boost from big data

TD Ameritrade is making a more personalized technology pitch to advisers.

The firm’s top executives said Tuesday that they plan to roll out within the next few months a new system that filters information from third-party software — from CRM to portfolio management — into a unified dashboard built for each individual.

The Veo open access integrated dashboard is being piloted now, and the firm is hoping to increase the number of collaborating third-party vendors in time to introduce the capabilities to advisers around its January national conference in San Diego, according to Thomas Nally, president of the TD’s institutional business.

Mr. Nally and TD Ameritrade chief executive Fred Tomczyk spoke with InvestmentNews on Tuesday as the brokerage said its profits rose 5.5% to $211 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30 as it drew in $53 billion in new client assets, a record.

TD doesn’t break out how much of those assets were driven by its 4,500 affiliated registered investment advisory firms. But the firm credited Veo, its technology platform that integrates access to outside software like Salesforce, eMoneyAdvisor and Black Diamond, with helping to drive new assets.

The dashboard will collect data about each employee of an advisory firm that uses Veo, including their job function and how they use the platform to personalize their experience. Third-party software will be visible on the integrated dashboard through “widgets.”

The personalization matches the firm’s efforts with retail investors, which will include serving content and investment products based on an investor’s past trades, according to Mr. Tomczyk.

But the firm is not launching its own robo-adviser.

On the heels of robo-adviser roll-out announcements by two competitors, Mr. Tomczyk said creating a robo-adviser can be difficult without providing investors with people who can provide sufficient advice and support.

“It’s interesting how much media attention it’s got and certainly it’s got a lot of venture capital money,” said Mr. Tomczyk. “It’s very hard to get it to scale and getting it to appeal to the broader market.”

The Charles Schwab Corp. said Monday it will launch a robo-adviser with no management fee, Intelligent Portfolios, next quarter.

Fidelity Investments earlier this month announced it was collaborating with the digital advice provider Betterment, which charges a 25 basis-point fee on assets invested. Fidelity receives a fee on those assets for making the referrals.

Though it is not developing its own service, TD Ameritrade has been tapping into the online advice trend by hosting a number of so-called robo-advisers on Veo.

Advisers, for example, can already send client funds to online platforms such as Jemstep Inc., Upside Financial, Trizic or NestEgg Wealth. They could also work on developing their own digital advice platform, as some firms, such as Ritholtz Wealth Management, have done with platforms like Liftoff, which was built using a custom platform provided by Upside.

Mr. Nally has said TD wanted to avoid locking advisers into one online advice platform because of how quickly technology changes.
(An earlier version of this story incorrectly indicated that platforms Jemstep, Upside Financial, Trizic and NestEgg Wealth custody assets with TD Ameritrade.)