TD Ameritrade Institutional: On the Side of Independent Advisors

How do you build a bond with a niche audience in a highly-regulated space — and get advisors to see a custodian as a partner, not a vendor? TDAI held the #2 position serving independent RIAs despite being outspent by its competition 20 to 1. But the category itself had a trust problem: Schwab and Fidelity both operated retail brokerages incentivized to solicit the very clients of the RIAs they served on the institutional side. TDAI was built differently — it didn't run a retail brokerage competing with its advisors. The problem wasn't the offering. It was the story.

Scale at a personal cost, or personal service at scale. Charles Schwab and Fidelity were pursuing scale — at a cost advisors felt every time their own clients got solicited. TDAI was doing the opposite: delivering personal service, at scale, to the advisors it served. The reframe gave us a positioning no competitor could honestly claim. On the side of independent advisors. Not a custodian. A partner.

The platform rolled out across four integrated work streams: Organizational Strategy (evolving TDAI to an agile working model with centralized intake and planning), Brand Platform (built around a single, ownable idea), Sales Enablement (a custom sales tool and prospecting system for every relationship manager), and Event Activation (a full brand takeover at TDAI LINC, the company's flagship advisor conference).

The platform launched across organizational strategy, brand platform, sales enablement, and event activation — each one reinforcing the idea that TDAI didn't just say it was on the side of advisors; it operated that way.

• +3.3% increase in brand consideration — a reversal from the -6.7% decrease in the period prior to campaign launch.
• +36% YOY growth in net new client assets since campaign launch.
• +50% increase in drivers of consideration among TDAI's primary target — potential breakaway and wirehouse brokers.
• Held the #2 position in the custodial RIA market against competitors outspending TDAI 20 to 1.