TD Ameritrade reports record rise in net new assets

Though it lowered its earnings outlook for the year, TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. posted a record $10.2 billion hike in net new assets in the first quarter, the firm announced last week.

“Despite what some see [to the contrary], we continue to see a very healthy breakaway-broker pipeline” in the company’s custody business, Fred Tomczyk, president and chief executive, said on an earnings call.

The company didn’t offer separate asset flows from its registered investment adviser custody business, versus its discount-brokerage operation.

The net-new-asset total was well ahead of the $8.7 billion figure the firm reported in the fourth quarter. It also far outstripped the $6.4 billion the firm brought in a year earlier.

Mr. Tomczyk said that a program to attract adviser recruits who want to join an existing RIA practice “continues to work very well” and that TD Ameritrade is benefiting from a “bit of a rising tide” in the adviser breakaway market.

Nevertheless, Ameritrade lowered its profit outlook for the year to between 90 cents and $1.10 a share, down from an earlier estimate of between $1.10 and $1.40 a share.

The company said that lower trading volume and low interest rates, together with the seasonally slow summer months, will affect its financial results in the near term.

E-mail Dan Jamieson at [email protected].