Independent RIAs Need a Partner to Drive Growth: Q&A with TradePMR’s Scott Victoria

Wealth management firms are continuing to explore how their clients can leverage initial public offerings and how artificial intelligence-related technology will change the advisor-client relationship.  

Scott Victoria, President of TradePMR, discusses opportunities ahead for RIAs and how AI plays a role in the evolving wealth space. 

Robinhood acquired TradePMR last year. 

The following responses have been edited for clarity and conciseness. 

CM: What do you believe independent RIAs will increasingly demand from their custodians that larger custodians are less capable of providing? 

Advisors are going to want more of a partnership; they want somebody in their corner. Right now, there’s a really big problem with growth that’s not being talked about enough. 

[TradePMR] is building the next-generation platform that will make advisors a lot more attractive because of the platform technology and the offerings that we have.

We’re also providing incentives and capitalizing these firms when they bring us a legitimate plan that we buy, partner with them, and effectively invest in them. 

CM: Some industry professionals are predicting a crack in the AI bubble, while there is still enthusiasm around AI. What’s one area where you think the industry is overestimating AI’s capabilities and one area where you think it’s underestimating what’s to come? 

One thing I think we’re running up against, and could be a misconception, is that people are generally concerned about what’s going on with AI and how that’s going to affect their lives. 

One of the big fears that advisors have is, ‘Am I going to be replaced?’ We think that humans plus AI are going to be the real differentiator, and those individuals are going to stand out in the future.  

We believe there’s a human element in the loop, and I think that’s going to accelerate in those that adopt AI, especially in the human advisor-led space. 

[TradePMR] recently released an AI tool that is designed to help advisors be more effective in the services that they provide. The first tool that we rolled out is a portfolio digest, and it provides a clear snapshot of market activity and client account changes. 

We hear a lot of comments regarding AI fears, which is generally common when new technology comes to bear in the world, and that’s just a historical fact. But it’s those that lean into the combination of humans and AI that will take us to the next bound. 

CM: Given the current IPO cycle, do you think independent advisors and their clients are positioned to benefit, or does the traditional IPO market structure still largely favor prominent wealth management firms? 

IPO access is a piece of the larger mission that we have, which is that democratized finance is for everyone, so this is just yet another product that we’re bringing to the market and advisors.  

It first started in the retail space with our parent company, Robinhood, then we recently expanded to provide advisors with the same type of IPO access. With this access, advisors will be allowed to gain access to various types of products that were not typically accessible to them. 

We’ve received feedback from advisors regarding the process because it is not traditional, and we have heard from other custodians that are pitching their ideas, and it’s not very visible to the RIAs that they can even participate.  

There are a lot of blockers and challenges, and depending on the RIA, there can be a lot of high bars and requirements, which we have eliminated. 

CM: What has surprised you most about combining a legacy custodial platform with Robinhood’s “consumer-facing, retail-first” technology stack? 

We always believed in the power of this combination and what it can do to the marketplace and this industry. If anything, I am surprised by the engineers, the technology, the speed of innovation, and how much opportunity there is to advance. 

If anything, I am also surprised by the uptick in interest and the investment that is coming to the space. This industry has been continuously encouraging for many years regarding fiduciary independence. 

Financial literacy is the key, and education is power. At Robinhood, we aim to understand what we can get through to advisors and change the outcomes of people’s financial lives and trajectories.