Oisin Breen

My old firm met Apex when we added reps from ThinkEquity. My memories are they have good client contracts.

Jeff, Good for clients, good for Apex or good all-around?

Apex Clearing by far is the lowest cost provider in the clearing space, and that's the only reason the upstart fintech are with them, needing to make the model work on low margins.  As with most things in life, you get what you pay for.  In spite of the way they market themselves, the reality is that most of Apex is built on old technology that is antiquated and highly strained at the moment under the weight of the massive growth being seen by the likes of Webull, Sofi, Public, and others.  There are outages of some kind almost daily.  The CEO used to send out apologies and provide assurances that things will get better, but he seems to have given up on doing that.  It can take hours for a new account to be opened.  There are days that it is impossible to get through by phone to a "department" that is staffed by one or two people.  I can only hope they use the proceeds from this SPAC to invest heavily in their infrastructure.

I see (Apex) does not have much diversity.  I hope they change that in the future.

After growing to near $100 billion in custody, Apex Clearing strikes 'IPO' deal to raise 'up to' $1 billion to disrupt existing RIA custody

Apex

Asset custodians are the central players in the RIA business and choosing one is the biggest decision most financial advisors will make to build their business. As the place where RIAs park their assets (the same way a captive broker would park assets at Merrill Lynch or UBS), custodians serve hundreds or thousands of these registered investment advisors and make big investments in technology and service on their clients' behalf.

This section features a series of articles under the “Asset Custody Project” label that cover these companies in a way that keeps advisors abreast of their progress – both with journalistic commentary and a common set of data so that advisors can easily compare them. The articles look at the strengths, weaknesses and niche capabilities of these companies.

&mdash; Brooke Southall

Here are links to the profiles of custodians:

 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/11942001/">Equity Advisor Solutions</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/4977738934910976/with-robo-advisors-on-the-rise-robo-custodian-apex-is-rising-them-a-diamond-mined-from-the-rubble-of-the-penson-worldwide-debacle">Apex Clearing</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/11320001">Raymond James</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/10207085">State Street</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/1812010">Ceros Financial</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/9033656">Fidelity</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/7435709">Pershing</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/1212007">Royal Bank of Canada</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/133138">Scottrade</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/8101589">Schwab</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/8788433">TD Ameritrade</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/124061">Trade-PMR</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/1161005">Trust Company of America</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/1490002">BNY Mellon</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/5385142">Folio Institutional</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/108011">Shareholders Service Group</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/5933001">National Advisors Trust</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://www.riabiz.com/a/22600260/how-us-bank-appeared-on-the-scene-as-an-ria-custodian-and-where-it-might-find-love">US Bank</a></li>
</ul>

If you want a more chronological look at news about the custodians, just scroll down.

RIA Custodians

The Dallas turnaround project is now valued near $5 billion after its assets in custody jumped from $30 billion in 2017 under care of Pershing and Morningstar RIA defectors.

After growing to near $100 billion in custody, Apex Clearing strikes 'IPO' deal to raise 'up to' $1 billion to disrupt existing RIA custody

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