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Dear Valued Client,
The Syverson Strege Team has spent the past several months piloting a few clients’ investment accounts with a new investment custodian. We would like to let you know that we will begin transitioning the remainder of our clients’ investment accounts from Charles Schwab to SEI Private Trust Company beginning in early July. This transition will happen in phases, and you will hear directly from our team when we are ready to start the process for your accounts.
Due to the acquisition of TD Ameritrade by Charles Schwab a few years ago, all our clients’ investment accounts were moved to Schwab’s platform in the fall of 2023.
Since that transition occurred, we have been disappointed by the service we have received as your financial advisor in trying to manage your accounts and– in some cases – we have been disappointed in the customer service experience from Schwab that you have received as clients.
Therefore, over the course of 2024, we conducted due diligence of investment custodians that could potentially replace Schwab to see if there were better platforms available.
Our investment team conducted research on 9 different investment custodians and our search somewhat ironically brought us back to an old friend, SEI.
SEI was our investment custodian from the late 90s to 2015 and served us very well until we decided to move to TD Ameritrade, which we thought offered better technology at that time. Through our recent due diligence, we discovered that SEI has grown tremendously in terms of their innovation and technology. We now believe that SEI delivers a state-of-the-art investment platform that will allow us to manage our clients’ accounts much more efficiently.
We also believe that SEI’s dedication to customer service aligns perfectly with our values at Syverson Strege in putting our clients’ interests first. We are confident that our clients’ accounts will be on a secure platform and receive the attention and service they deserve.
To clarify, our investment team at Syverson Strege will continue to manage your accounts the same way we always have but your accounts will now be held at SEI instead of Schwab.
To further share the reasoning behind this transition and hopefully answer any questions you might have, Managing Director Lance Gunkel and Chief Investment Officer Jason Gunkel recorded the following videos:
We understand change can bring a lot of questions, and you are playing a big role in helping us be prepared to answer those questions by providing us with feedback on your experience transitioning your accounts. We expect this process to go smoothly but your feedback will help us tailor our communication and processes for the larger transition of clients that will occur later this year.
Here is a summary of how the transition will occur:
- First, we anticipate that nearly all assets will be transferred to SEI “in-kind” meaning that nothing must be sold for the accounts to transfer.
- Once at SEI, we expect that most accounts will remain in the same strategy and in the same investments. This means that there should be no tax consequences caused by the transfer.
- For some accounts that hold individual stocks and bonds, we could recommend a change into a similar investment strategy offered by SEI. However, we will make sure to review this recommendation with you and that the tax consequences are minimal.
- To authorize the transfer of your accounts from Schwab to SEI, you will need to sign some paperwork. We will complete this paperwork for you, and you will just need to sign either digitally through DocuSign, in-person, or by regular mail – whatever method is easiest for you!
- We will also help get you set up on SEI’s client portal that can be accessed on the web or on your mobile device. Once all your accounts are transferred you will be ready to view them on your preferred device.
- We anticipate that it will take about a week for your accounts to transfer to SEI once the paperwork has been submitted.
- After your accounts arrive at SEI, someone from our team will reach out to you to confirm that the transfers are complete, ensure you can view the accounts, and to see if you have any additional questions at that time.
One additional note is that you can expect to receive two sets of tax documents for 2025, one from Schwab and one from SEI. We will help ensure that you receive these documents in early 2026.
We thank you again for your continued trust in Syverson Strege. We will do our best to make this transition as smooth as possible and please don’t hesitate to provide us with your feedback. We are confident that this change will be beneficial for us and our clients.
Sincerely,
Jason Gunkel
Chief Investment Officer
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