Evenksy dumps Charles Schwab

The decade-long relationship between The Evensky Group and Charles Schwab has come to an end after the group dumped Schwab, choosing instead to sign its main rival Fidelity Investments.

The Evensky Group was launched in the US in May by Harold Evensky, Peter Brown and Denna Katz to establish 'family private offices' around the county.

Evensky and Katz, two keynote speakers at last year's FPA conference, split with Schwab after the group could not provide the Evensky group's clients with exclusive features through the brokerage firm.

Under the new partnership, The Evensky Group will use Fidelity's Institutional Brokerage Group to handle client accounts and back-office support. The new partnership will also see about $US360 million in assets under management shift from Schwab to Fidelity.

However, according to Financial Planning magazine in the US, Fidelity will go beyond "the traditional relationship of support".

The Evensky Group expects to deliver aggregated and consolidated statements to its clients within the next six months.

The group also plans to raise $US45 million in private capital over the next three years to acquire practices across the United States, with the first five deals completed midway through the new year. By 2002, the group plans to accelerate its purchasing pace, buying two firms every three months.

More than 40 firms have approached the group, and according to the group no acquisition would be viewed as an exit strategy for the selling practitioner. The group wants to buy practices with principals looking to continue to grow the business, not retire young.

This setup would allow planners to spend more time with clients and less time performing administrative duties.