What do Charles Schwab, personal finance, and rap music all have in common? Not much. Still, their convergence resulted in the production of an infectious music video created by an Indianapolis teen who won the grand prize winner in a financial literacy hip hop contest sponsored by Charles Schwab Foundation.
The competition is called the Money Matters Music Mogul (M4) Contest, and 15 year old Blake McGuire’s song, Money All That Matters!, received more than 100,000 votes on myclubmylife.com and is featured on the first-ever financial literacy-themed hip hop album.
Young McGuire’s rap is not great poetry and doesn’t convey much personal finance wisdom, and the video ironically features a banner in the background promoting Greece. But you have to give the give the Schwab foundation credit for getting teens to think about personal finance.
“Let’s face it, personal finance in itself may not seem all that interesting to teens, so we’re always looking for fresh ways to light a spark," said Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, president of Charles Schwab Foundation in a press release. “We thought hip hop was a genre they would find relevant, and the success of the contest proved us right. I've been really impressed with the results, and have to say that I can’t get this year’s winning song out of my head!”
"Charles Schwab is making it even easier for investors to sharpen their trading skills," says a press release from the company, which remains faithful to its mission of educating retail investors to manage their money. "As part of its continuing commitment to investor education, Schwab will host a virtual education event for active traders on Thursday, March 28, 2013. Workshops on essential trading topics such as navigating today’s markets, stock selection and chart pattern recognition will be streamed live and free of charge, over the internet."
"Schwab’s virtual trader events are the latest enhancement to the robust educational resources available to Schwab clients," says the press release. "Schwab also offers live in-branch educational workshops, live online workshops and on-demand online webinars. The Schwab Learning Center provides clients with access to a broad range of educational content for various skill levels—including articles and pre-recorded seminars, as well as live events and webcasts—all in a central location."
Just a reminder that the most popular custodians relied on by RIAs are competing against RIAs.
TD Ameritrade Institutional Hires Jim Dario Away From Pershing Advisor Solutions, Where He Led RIA Business Development And Advisor Recruiting
Tuesday, September 04, 2012 16:45
Jim Dario has been named the new managing director of product management for TD Ameritrade Institutional, where he will lead the strategy for product development and enhancements across core advisor offerings including technology, practice management and wealth management solutions.
Dario will oversee new product introductions and the delivery of key solutions including technology integrations, business development tools and investment management products to support more than 4,000 independent registered investment advisors (RIAs) who custody with TDAI, according to a press release.
Before joining TDAI, Dario was managing director of business development & relationship management at Pershing Advisor Solutions, responsible for leading the vision and delivery of advisor recruiting and business development programs to assist RIAs in growing their businesses.
Previously, Dario served as the executive vice president of relationship management at Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, leading service and relationship management teams focused on helping RIAs achieve their business goals using marketing, workflow, and technology solutions.
Advisors looking for a place to park their clients' non-traditional assets without raising fiduciary concerns may find life getting a little easier now that Schwab is back at the table.
Schwab initially supported alternative assets on its custody platform, then wavered, booting real estate, limited partnerships, hedge funds, and other types of investment to Millennium Trust.
But now, the firm has an SEC letter in hand stating that it's okay to validate "uncertified" asset custody via the National Securities Clearing Corporation's new alternative investment product service.
To cut through the boilerplate, as long as an entity signs up with the NSCC, its securities can show up in Schwab accounts.
Schwab will need to monitor the NSCC system for updates and do some extra bookkeeping, but otherwise that's it.
This is huge for Schwab and huge for advisors whose clients want to integrate their exotic holdings into their traditional securities accounts.
It's also a ray of sunshine in a market so crowded with sketchy non-traded and unregistered products that all the due diligence in the world can't stop huge firms from adding toxic securities to the shelf.
To show up in custody accounts, all alternative securities have to be registered with the NSCC. They now have a much clearer paper trail. They're on the books.
This can help prevent future Madoff-style situations where money disappears from unregistered vehicles outside public custody. Transparency is coming!
Bock used to run Morgan Stanley's southeast region and was at Bear Stearns before that.
This is not just another executive move. By installing Bock as head of the independent advisor services unit, LPL is announcing that it wants to be yet another in the growing list of firms that cater to RIA clients.
It's not just a world dominated by Fidelity, Schwab, Pershing, and TDA -- and a crowd of specialized vendors -- any more.
Raymond James and other broker-dealers are getting into the act. The question is whether LPL's famous self-clearing platform will help it or hurt it when going after RIAs who are used to working with broader vendors.
