Long a favorite for the small RIA, its spiffier reports and early admission in Schwab's grand technology plan give it a bigger future

Brooke’s Note: Arguably the two biggest decisions an RIA makes when setting up a practice are the choice of an asset custodian and the portfolio accounting system. So it’s notable that The Charles Schwab Corp. owns the unquestioned leader in custody in Schwab Advisor Services and — depending on your metrics — the leader or almost-leader in portfolio accounting in Schwab Performance Technologies. Still the San Francisco-based corporation hasn’t seemed to realize big synergies from these dual strengths. Now the company is putting the final touches on a series of efforts that could bring PortfolioCenter to its fuller potential as a stand-alone software company and as a partner of the industry’s biggest custodian.
Heather and I split the writing of this piece. I took on the question of how Schwab’s platform competes; she wrote the review of the technology that begins after the subheadline “Interface.”

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