Schwab - TD-Ameritrade Integration Update -- December 4, 2021

Just a few miles down the road from where I live is Schwab's largest campus. At least I think it is. Someone can fact check me on it. Perhaps the one in San Francisco is larger. Link here. 

A mile closer is/was a brand new TD-Ameritrade campus that was nearing completion or perhaps completed when it was announced that Schwab would be acquiring TD-Ameritrade. That was two or three years ago. 

Where does the merger stand now?

Several links.

We'll start here, data points:

• announced in 2019
• $26 billion deal
• mid-2020: approval of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice
• apparently, process of training staff began in 2021
• the actual moving of client accounts will take place in last six months of 2023
• The "conversion":
• will require that thousands of financial advisors move from TD's custody platform to Schwab's
• roughly 20,000 RIA's in the wealth management space
• manage about $4 trillion in client assets
• the RIA market, 80% controlled by:
• Schwab Advisor Services, TD Ameritrade Institutional, Fidelity and Pershing

Wealthmanagement, June 7, 2021, has same information. 

Financial cost of integration, Schwab and TD-Ameritrade, link here: about a half-billion dollars more than expected; now estimated to be around $2 billion to $2.2 billion. Original estimate: $1.6 billion for the integration.

Largest mergers of the last 20 years, link to 247wallstreet: the list provides the top 100. Schwab / Ameritrade barely makes the list, coming in at 99. It's a pain to go through the list with all the advertisements, but it's manageable. 

Money market funds managed by, link here, around $5 trillion:

• Fidelity, $0.9 trillion; 18% of total
• JP Morgan, $0.5 trillion; 9% of total
• Vanguard, $0.5 trillion; 9% of total
• Blackrock, $0.5 trillion, 10%
• Goldman Sachs, $0.4 trillion, 8%
• Federated, $0.3 trillion, 7%
• Dreyfus, $0.2 trillion, 5%
• Schwab $0.1 trillion, 3%
• Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, State Street, Northern Trust, Investco, half a dozen others.

My hunch: Schwab moves headquarters from San Francisco to Ft Worth, Texas, in 2025.