by Kevin Slater, Lead Advisor & CEO

SoundView currently works with three custodians: Schwab, Pershing, and, to a far lesser degree, TIAA-CREF. It’s a long, dramatic story of how we got to this point, but ultimately, we felt it was in everyone’s best interest to ensure multiple options were available.

Beginning in April, we will add Fidelity as a new custodian and eventually phase out our relationship with Pershing. We expect clients to see both an elevated service experience and more competitive long-term costs. We anticipate that most of our Pershing clients will switch to Fidelity. However, your Advisor will discuss the change with you.

Background (for Compliance Geeks!)

SoundView is a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) as opposed to a broker. This has two key implications. First, we are fiduciaries to our clients—we legally must act in their best interests rather than our own. (That seems like the ethical thing to do anyway, but brokers successfully fought against being held to this standard earlier this year.)

Second, we do not take possession of client assets; rather, we work with custodians that hold clients’ investments in accounts in the client’s name. We direct the custodians on the actions to take with those assets and depend on them to be strong business partners and provide great service to our clients, just like we do.

Transition Teammate

SoundView’s newest team member, Kamryn Hafer, will serve as the point person for this transition. Not only is she a lovely person, but she has experience managing similar transitions at her prior employer and will work closely with your Advisor and Support Advisor to make this as seamless as possible. We anticipate that the majority of accounts moving to Fidelity will be completed by the end of June.

We feel good about this move and what it means over time. We’ll be walking through the transition with you, step by step, and doing everything we can to keep it smooth and straightforward. Our team will handle the heavy lifting behind the scenes, and we’re here if anything comes up along the way.