The Merger of TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab

You may have heard that TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab are merging. How does this affect Stewardship Advisors and our clients?

First, let’s take a look at who TD Ameritrade is, and how they are connected with Stewardship Advisors — and yourself as the account owners.

TD Ameritrade is a contracted service provider (that Stewardship Advisors selected many years ago) who act as custodian of our clients’ accounts. They are the bookkeepers that hold your assets and make the trades that we, as your investment managers, tell them to make. Since they only hold the funds, they do not make any decisions on what we invest in nor do they have any ability to make any changes on your accounts without instruction.

In a way, this event is similar to a merger of your bank with another bank. The name on the statements change, but they continue to cash your checks. The difference between this merger and a bank merger is that the people you are used to dealing with, Stewardship Advisors, will not change.

While we are not likely to see any changes for 1-2 years, we are watching closely how this merger progresses. If we were to have any concerns or felt things were heading in a direction that is not in the best interest for our clients, we would contact you to make a change to another custodian/bookkeeper.

If you should have any questions, please feel free to talk to your advisor.

W Lee Shertzer

Managing Partner