Robinhood says it picked up new customers since last group of TD Ameritrade users moved to Charles Schwab

By Weston Blasi

About 17 million accounts and $1.9 trillion in assets moved from TD Ameritrade to Schwab, and a small percentage of users said they were frustrated with their new platform

After Charles Schwab (SCHW) finished transitioning the last batch of millions of TD Ameritrade users to its platform last week, hundreds of them complained about the switch.

Dozens of new Schwab users who recently had their accounts moved from TD Ameritrade contacted MarketWatch to complain about Schwab's financial platform. And rival brokerage Robinhood (HOOD) says it has seen an influx of new customers since that time from TD Ameritrade.

"The Schwab interface is not simple and easy to learn compared to the TD app," said Reilly McAdams, 23, who had been using TD Ameritrade for about six years before being transitioned this month. "When using the desktop website, instead of seeing a nice clear P/L (profit/loss) chart and a simple interface, I see a basic run-of-the-mill website built for a retirement account that you check every 6-12 months."

And Frank Oberly, 35, from Alexandria, Va., told MarketWatch the transition he went through from TD Ameritrade to Schwab went well in terms of getting his equities moved without any signs of his investments missing, but he felt like he wasn't able to do much once he arrived at his new online home.

How intuitive and easy online trading platforms are to use is extremely important to active traders. You'll find thousands of them complaining about the platforms they currently use, including Robinhood.

According to the Best Brokers survey conducted by Barron's in 2023, Fidelity and Interactive Brokers were the highest-rated brokerages, with 5 stars (MarketWatch and Barron's are both published by Dow Jones & Company). Next on the list was Schwab, with 4.5 stars, followed by TD Ameritrade, ETrade and Merrill Edge with 4 stars. Robinhood received just 2 stars.

Regarding seeing new customers during the time users were transitioned from TD Ameritrade to Schwab, Robinhood's Chief Brokerage Officer, Steve Quirk, told MarketWatch: "I very much anticipated this happening. We have already been the recipient of a lot of new accounts."

A Charles Schwab spokesperson told MarketWatch: "The percentage of transitioned Ameritrade clients who are reaching out to us or posting on social media with concerns is extremely small relative to the 1.8 million accounts that moved in this final group and the roughly 17 million accounts and $1.9 trillion in assets that moved overall."

"In any integration like this, it is normal for some clients to have initial questions or concerns, but the number of clients choosing to leave Schwab is tracking well below our expectations announced at the beginning of the integration and also compared to other transactions in the industry," the spokesperson added.

Robinhood has been a popular platform for meme-stock traders, as GameStop and AMC drove $5 billion in trades on Robinhood in a single day recently, according to Robinhood Chief Executive Vlad Tenev.

Robinhood's Quirk declined to give specific numbers for just how many new customers were coming from TD Ameritrade/Schwab, but said it was "a lot."

Quirk previously worked at TD Ameritrade for over a decade, including when it was acquired by Schwab in 2020.

In total, Schwab transitioned 1.8 million clients and about $350 billion in assets to its platform last week, which was the last 10% of clients who were scheduled to move from TD Ameritrade to Schwab.

Other online brokerages including Morgan Stanley (MS), ETrade; Fidelity Investments; and Interactive Brokers LLC (IBKR) did not respond to requests for comment on whether they've recently seen an uptick in new customers.

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-Weston Blasi

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05-23-24 1254ET

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