Black Diamond Lures Another Schwab Manager for Service Team

Black Diamond Performance Reporting, portfolio management service provider for independent advisors, has now put the crowning touch on its growing client service team. It appointed Nancy Ma-Apfel as its director of client service, the company said Friday morning.

Ma-Apfel will lead a specialized group of service professionals who will give its independent advisor client base a single point of contact at the company for all of their needs. She has over 14 years of experience in building and managing service teams, and will continue that with her group at Black Diamond. There, her team will be directly responsible for ensuring smooth client experiences with Black Diamond’s technology.

And there is more to come. Black Diamond hopes to double its client service team and end up with 16 representatives by yearend, Apfel said in a phone interview on Friday morning. “Black Diamond has got a great niche in the marketplace,” Ma-Apfel said. “They have a dedicated service model with a single point of contact for [clients]. That is unique in the marketplace.”

Previously, she was a senior manager for Schwab Advisor Services. Indeed, Ma-Apfel is the latest executive from the independent advisory industry’s leading custodians to join Jacksonville, Fla.-based Black Diamond. In January, it scored David Welling, a former advisory business consultant and general manager at Schwab Advisor Services, a division of Charles Schwab [SCHW]. And in March the firm hired Karen Lisowski as its vice president of sales. Lisowski had been vice president of retirement plan sales and relationship management at Fidelity Investments, where she worked with registered investment advisors (RIAs).

“Nancy will play a key role in helping advisors on their path to greatness by enhancing and expanding our ability to serve sophisticated, growth-oriented advisors,” Reed Colley, president and chief executive officer of Black Diamond Performance Reporting said in a statement.

On June 21, Black Diamond rolled out its Blue-Sky initiative, a plan to enhance its existing technology offerings with expanded services. Those enhancements include new teams of expert consultants in transition support, performance history and client reporting. #

 

 

 

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