The largest custodian in the RIA industry is teaming up with Salesforce.
Charles Schwab revealed late Thursday that it is integrating its Schwab Advisor Services technology platform with Salesforce Financial Services Cloud, a piece of customer relationship management (CRM) software popular with advisors. Schwab provides custody for roughly $3.6tn in RIA assets.
Westlake, Texas-based Schwab described the tie-up as a ‘significant enhancement’ for its RIA customers.
‘Independent advisors who custody with Schwab have been actively requesting this integration, so it’s an important milestone on our roadmap when it comes to third-party technology,’ stated Kartik Srinivasan, director of third-party integrations in Schwab’s digital advisor solutions division.
Advisors use both Salesforce Financial Services Cloud — which is tailored specifically for RIAs, asset managers and banks — and Salesforce Sales Cloud, which is aimed at a broader, general business audience. Schwab’s RIA custody tech is already integrated with Salesforce Sales Cloud.
Doug Fritz, founder of RIA tech consultancy F2 Strategy, said the integration is ‘really big news’ because ‘if Schwab advisors can initiate digital account opening via their CRM, it would cut significant time (and duplicate entry) out of many advisor and operational folks’ days.’
In the 2021 edition of the T3/Inside Information Software Survey, roughly 10.6% of surveyed RIA advisors said they used either Salesforce Financial Services Cloud or Salesforce Sales Cloud.
‘Many of Schwab’s largest clients use Salesforce, so this is important for them,’ said Joel Bruckenstein, co-author of the report and organizer of the T3 technology conferences for advisors. ‘The ability to initiate digital account openings is overdue.’
The most popular CRM software provider in the RIA industry by Bruckenstein’s survey is Redtail Technology. Roughly 62% of respondents said they used Redtail’s software.
Redtail said Tuesday it plans to sell itself to Orion Advisor Solutions, a developer of performance reporting software and investment outsourcer.
‘Is it a blow to Redtail? I think not,’ Bruckenstein said of Schwab’s integration. ‘First of all, this alone will not cause advisors to change CRM. Second, Redtail is certainly capable for similar functionality. Third, I think the combination of Orion and Redtail suggests that Schwab and Redtail will continue to innovate together in the future.’
Note: This version of the story adds a comment from Doug Fritz of F2 Strategy.
