RIAs

TD Ameritrade announced Wednesday it will introduce access to a full range of competitively priced annuities to help independent registered investment advisors meet increasing client demand for retirement income solutions.

For a startup firm, attracting $150 million in assets under management within nine months is impressive. The entire story, though, of PWM Advisory Group goes back more than a decade.

Washington Wealth Management added Domari Wealth Management, a breakaway team from Wells Fargo with $135 million in AUM and $1.4 million in revenue, to its newly formed Woodland Hills, Calif., office.

"Confidentiality is critical," says Mary Ann Buchanan, a 25-year industry veteran and founder of Purcellville, VA-based RIA Match. "[Advisors] need to be able to look around anonymously. They need to have the ability to stick their toe in the water and see who is out there. Names and addresses [collected from users] will never, ever be sold."

"We provide all the tools a broker needs to thrive," said Russell Gebhard, president of Sovereign Investment Group in Houston."If the advisor is successful, it's more than likely the clients will be, too."

A survey from the Oechsli Institute reveals that advisors are underusing the personal aspects of social media to build client rapport.

CFO4LIFE, a Coppell, Texax, financial planning firm with more than $450 million in assets, announced Thursday it is departing from LPL Financial to become an RIA.

"A lot of advisors say they have a team," said Jeff Fishman, who heads JSF Financial in Los Angeles. "When you talk to them, you find out they have a bunch of people who came from wirehouses. We have a real team: people from different backgrounds who play different roles."

The agency is targeting Summit Wealth Management, a registered investment advisor, and Angelo Alleca, who is charged with defrauding investors in what the SEC describes as a scheme that sought to conceal losses from trades that went bad through the creation of new private funds that were used to repay the original investors.

Savvy financial advisors are using social sites to differentiate themselves from the competition and to build trust and credibility. Perhaps the biggest reason for financial advisors to get involved in social marketing can be summed up in four words: Your customers are there.