What is a RIA-Friendly BD in the context of a Registered Investment Advisor (“RIA”)?

Definition: These are specialty broker-dealers whose business model is to partner with RIAs, enabling the RIA to retain control over their advisory practice, yet utilize the broker-dealer to support their remaining commission based assets.

When used in an RIA context: “When starting his RIA, the financial advisor opted to utilize a RIA-Friendly BD to be able to continue to service his remaining commission based assets.”

See also: Episode 124, BD, broker-dealer