Hi guys,

Anybody know of a good BD for an independent RIA? Small AUM,unfortunately. I handle only about $6 million on registered rep side, and anticipate this growing 20% a year.

Went independent with brokersxpress 2 years ago. Fortunately, I created my own RIA 1 year ago and had brokersXpress acting as custodian. Because today I got the news  that BE is pulling out of all relationships with indies, whether ria's or reps. Looks like Schwab - who bought BE - wants no piece of the compliance morass covering registered reps.

I will probably  be going with Interactive Brokers as custodian for my RIA  for their low low fees, as I do a lot of trading for a limited number of qualified investors, and reducing friction to the minimum is a big part of the puzzle.  I'd like to keep my broker's hat for 2 reasons: 1) for clients having mutual funds that don't want to move families, as IB does not custody load mutual fund products and 2) for clients who like to hold a bond ladder for a very long period (better for them to pay a one time 1% fee rather than a yearly maintenance fee).

Alternative is to ditch the Series 7 altogether, and just go fee based. I've figured out how I can handle insurance/ annuities as an RIA, but not sure about those 2 customer types mentioned above. I'd love to know how other RIA's deal with those issues.

Looking forward to your replies.