A series of sweeping initiatives for 2013 was unveiled was unveiled yesterday in Chicago by financial services giant Charles Schwab & Co at its annual conference, IMPACT 2012, one of the country’s largest gatherings of registered investment advisors.

A series of sweeping initiatives for 2013 was unveiled yesterday in Chicago by financial services giant Charles Schwab & Co at its annual conference, IMPACT 2012, one of the country’s largest gatherings of registered investment advisors.

Schwab will be launching an advisor directory for potential clients, a ratings and review site where RIAs can research and comment on technology providers, and new national advertising for its RIA branding campaign. In addition, the firm plans to roll-out an intern program to identify and develop new talent for the advisory industry next year and a new education program in 2014 to groom the next generation of RIA firm owners.

“You need to embrace technology in a new way,” Schwab executive vice president and head of advisor services Bernie Clark said as he introduced the initiatives in his keynote address, reminding the audience that the industry was built by advisors who were willing to break with tradition.

Independent advisors must “respond to the threat” posed by wirehouses who are trying to emulate their best practices, Clark said. “Competition is all around you,” he warned the audience. “You need to capture what is yours.”

More fiduciary lobbying

Clark also said he planned to keep advocating for RIAs as lawmakers hammer out a new legislation defining fiduciary responsibilities as part of the still unfinished Dodd-Frank Act. “I expect to spend quite a bit of time in Washington next year,” he said, adding that the nation’s capital will be the site of next year’s IMPACT conference.

The advertising campaign and advisor directory were part of Schwab’s efforts to continue and enhance its “RIA Stands for You” branding campaign, Clark said. The announcement drew mixed reviews from Steve Lockshin, chairman of Convergent Wealth Advisors and co-founder of Advizent, a new company that also plans to promote the RIA brand and offer a directory service.

The Schwab initiative is “a step in the right direction,” Lockshin said, but not the “giant leap the industry needs.” By focusing only on Schwab advisors, the new directory “ignores the larger RIA universe,” the industry veteran argued. “If we were all saying the same thing at the same time, the impact would be exponentially greater.”

“Zagat-style” tech reviews

Clark described Market Square, the new site where advisors can rate and review technology providers, as a “Zagat-style” site, modeled after the pioneering restaurant review and comment guide. He also highlighted two other new additions to Schwab’s Intelligent Integration service: an ability to allow clients to use an electronic signature on documents through an arrangement with DocuSign, and a new Schwab Advisor Center app for the iPad.

“With all the electronic documents we have to deal with, the e-signature capability is going to make our job a lot easier,” said Michael Glowacki, principal of the Los Angeles-based Glowacki Group. “That’s something I’m really excited about.”