# I don't understand the account setup on my IRA (rather long, I'm afraid) **URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-account-setup-on-my-ira-rather-long-im-afraid/1011009 **Category:** Factual Questions **Created:** [December 1, 2024, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-account-setup-on-my-ira-rather-long-im-afraid/1011009 "2024-12-01T04:44:30Z") **Posts on this page:** 1 **Showing post:** 3
### Author: ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy) #### Post date: [December 1, 2024, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-account-setup-on-my-ira-rather-long-im-afraid/1011009/3 "2024-12-01T13:35:46Z")
I have essentially the same set-up as the OP. If you hire a small firm financial advisor, that’s 100% typical. The small advisory firms don’t hold accounts directly. It’s not really any different from getting your car or life insurance from Honest Bob’s Hometown Insurance Agency. They don’t insure you; State Farm or Mutual of Omaha or The Hartford are insuring you; your local agency is in effect a salesman for them. Now _inside_ the industry there are two tiers: the custodian / trader companies who are huge like Wells Fargo, Merrill Lynch, etc… And the “platform” companies who are little more than websites that provide a connection between the custodians and the advisor and also provide a website to you. Ultimately it’s a wholesaler / retailer relationship. In my own case Wells Fargo’s Walls Street arm (not really connected to the evil bank) called First Clearing is the final custodian. > **[Correspondent Clearing Firm with Brokerage Expertise - First Clearing](https://www.firstclearing.com/)** > > Providing broker-dealers with operational and platform solutions, risk management and compliance tools, and innovative approaches to drive business growth. They (FC) don’t want to deal with individual customers or providing a trading and management platform. Dozens of competing trading / management platforms use First Clearing as their custodian. It happens that my own advisors chose these guys Trade PMR: > **[RIA Custody Services | RIA Trading Platform | TradePMR](https://www.tradepmr.com/home)** > > RIA custodial services provider delivering technology and whiteglove customer service. Learn more about TradePMR's RIA technology and custodial services. So that’s who’s website I access. With a bit of branding for my own RIA. That’s also who’s website my RIA and their staff access to do anything on my behalf. It is also not uncommon for advisors to shift platforms, custodians, or both. That whole industry is subject to mergers, changes in management, and all the rest. It is a wrenching change for the advisory firm and a total PITA for them. So they don’t tend to do it lightly. Over the decades I’ve had probably 10 platforms and 5 custodians along with 2 or 3 advisory firms. @markn_1 just above provides the other alternative way to do all this: Places like Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard simply eliminate the advisor, and are both the custodian and the web / trading platform under one roof. Note that going this way is no guarantee of smooth sailing. Just recently Schwab bought TD Ameritrade and all those millions of customers got swapped into Schwab whether they wanted that or not. Finally, note that none of this affects what you can invest in. I have money in mutual funds and ETFs from Fidelity, Schwab, and a few other big names. And various bonds, overseas funds, etc. Owning those things provides the same return as they would if I had a separate account at e.g. Fidelity holding the e.g. Fidelity funds, at Schwab holding the Schwab funds, etc. I agree the monkey-motion can sometimes be irritating. But the same monkey-motion goes on internally at any of the big DIY one-stop shops. And can go just as wrong. There is a valid debate, as outlined in this other thread, about whether dealing with an advisory firm is useful at all, much less worth the expense ~~some~~ most people are paying for it. > [@The Value of Financial Advisors](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-value-of-financial-advisors/1010506): > > I have retirement accounts (IRA, Roth) with an advisor we’ve had for about 20 years. It was a collection of loose ends, 401ks etc. my wife and I had at the time consolidated to one place. The portfolio is automatically balanced based on our age, so we don’t have to do much, we review our statements a couple times annually, and we meet with this person about once a year. I also have an inheritance portfolio for about the past dozen years. It’s not much, but it is with another firm my dad was usi… Overall, I liken it to getting your hardware at the local Ace with the knowledgeable experts, or going to the blue or orange big box store where there are people walking around the store, but they’re hard to find and not much help once you do. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-the-account-setup-on-my-ira-rather-long-im-afraid/1011009)._