Together the firms will continue to provide RIAs
with exceptional service and easy-to-use software.
Altruist is acquiring SSG in March 2023 in an effort to accelerate a shared mission – to make financial advice better, more affordable, and accessible to everyone.
Advisors using SSG’s custodial services should expect business as usual with zero disruption to existing services.
The merger provides numerous benefits for advisors including expanded customer support, modern practice management software, and continuous innovation for independent financial advisors.
Schedule a conversation with our team to get your questions answered, see the platform in action, and understand how Altruist makes life better for advisors and their clients.
Talk with our product experts
After over two decades in leadership and accomplishing everything they set out to, the SSG founding team decided it was time to focus on the next chapter of growth. The leadership team was looking for an ideal partner they trusted would carry on their commitment to exclusively serving RIAs. After months of due diligence, SSG selected Altruist for their commitment to RIAs and novel approach to custody and RIA technology. The founding team believes Altruist has the team, product, and vision to meet the needs of SSG advisors and clients for decades to come and accelerate a shared mission – make financial advice better, more affordable, and accessible to everyone.
SSG and Altruist share a commitment to always operate in the best interests of RIAs. The acquisition forms a trusted partnership with a shared promise to never go direct to consumers or compete for advisors’ clients. In addition, SSG advisors will have access to innovative software and services that can help them reduce costs, save time, and grow faster and more efficiently. Altruist’s platform combines a self-clearing brokerage and easy-to-use software for digital account opening, trading, performance reporting, billing, rebalancing, and integrations, along with a beautifully designed client application. Within portfolios, advisors can benefit from commission free trading, fractional shares, and simple model and model-of-models trading, all built in at no cost to advisors or end clients.
At a high level, the first priority is the integration of teams and technology. A cohesive team can better serve advisors. Additionally, we're working with Pershing to get a data feed to Altruist, giving you access to Altruist's brokerage services while still allowing you to do everything at Pershing. The goal is to provide access to Altruist without taking away any existing services.
Yes, the SSG Conference will take place November 1-3 at Hilton Torrey Pines, CA. Details of the event will be coming soon.
Altruist is the modern custodian built exclusively for RIAs. Our mission is to make independent financial advice better, more affordable, and accessible to everyone. To that end, Altruist has built a self-clearing brokerage firm vertically integrated with software for account opening, trading, reporting, and billing – all in one streamlined solution. Over 1,800 advisors across the U.S. have partnered with Altruist to reduce costs, save time, and grow their business. Altruist was founded by Jason Wenk, an industry veteran who built and led multiple RIA firms that grew to over $5B in AUM.
Altruist Clearing is a marketing name of, and brokerage products and services are provided by Altruist Financial LLC.
Altruist built a self-clearing custodian to own the entire product roadmap without needing permission from downstream vendors to innovate. This allows for full control over economics and the ability to give as much economic benefit back to customers as possible.
The advisors we work with and the people supporting them will not change. We'll continue to add capacity to uphold our level of service even during busy periods.
At Altruist, asset managers can be assigned at the account or household level.
Altruist offers commission-free trading for ETFs, individual securities, and warrants, with industry-low costs for other products.
Initially, you'll call into our bond desk. Digital fixed income trading will be available later this year, with fractional bond trading coming in the future.
SSG offers a money market fund and FDIC insured bank sweep, whereas Altruist (self-clearing) automates cash management to create the best of all worlds. This makes managing contributions, withdrawals, RMDs, and avoiding cash drag much easier.
Altruist is multi-custodial and can manage fees for accounts managed in both an SSG and Altruist environment.
You own your data. We have an open API that lets advisors do anything with their data, without restrictions on where it can go.
Altruist is venture-backed by firms with extremely long time horizons. The company is significantly employee-controlled, and our founder Jason controls the board. Our focus is on long-term growth and success.
If you are currently using a third-party trading system, we plan to have connections with those live by this summer.
Altruist has a release cycle of two weeks and uses an advisor idea portal to source ideas from advisors to guide our product roadmap.
Both SSG and Altruist have the same regulatory standard to achieve the best prices possible, and this is part of both firms' DNA.
PFOF is a marginal portion of our revenue. We're focused on helping firms deliver the best possible outcomes for their clients.
Clients receive income through both SSG and Altruist. Clients get 25% of the income, with lending fully collateralized daily at 102% of the loan. Clients get additional yield and maintain full control.
We will always be transparent about how we make money. Much like a traditional custodian, we will make money on things like cash balances, payment for order flow, and securities lending. With regards to payment for order flow, it's a very small amount of revenue for us and not something that we rely on in any meaningful way. Instead, we focus exclusively on delivering the best execution for our clients, which often means we send orders to different market centers.
We're grateful that over 1,800 independent advisors trust Altruist to help them grow their business. SSG currently works with approximately 1,600 firms. Together, we will serve over 3,000 financial advisors making us the #3 largest custodian by advisors served.
Altruist Clearing is the only self-clearing custodian that's fully digital, vertically integrated, and built exclusively for RIAs. Prior to April, we were an introducing broker/dealer partnering with Apex, a relationship similar to SSG's relationship with Pershing.
At Altruist, your most critical business functions are built natively into our platform including automated rebalancing, fee billing, performance reporting, and an intuitive client portal.
We have a lot of information both for you and your clients on how to use Altruist. Here are some links to get started:
Advisor Learning Library
Client Learning Library
If you're interested in learning more about Altruist, you can fill out the short form above and a member of our team will reach out!
Visit Altruist.com, Altruist.com/ssg, or reach out at hello@altruist.com. We'll be over-communicating in the coming weeks to keep you informed.
Clients can be moved to Altruist on a case-by-case basis, with some advisors allowed to move early. If you're interested, please reach out. We're focused on delivering a world-class experience, which is why integrating teams comes first.
No, statements will continue to have the same company names.
No, there will be no paper involved. If you choose to move clients, digital account opening and the negative consent process will be paperless. Paper is only involved if you switch to a completely unrelated custodian.
No. The initial priority post-acquisition is to seamlessly bring the two organizations together with a focus on optimizing technology and service delivery across the shared advisor base.
No. Advisors should continue to work directly with the SSG service team and will receive the same holistic, attentive service they have come to expect. Over time, Altruist and SSG will be integrating service teams to expand the breadth and availability of support for SSG advisors.
SSG advisors can expect business as usual with no impact or business disruption. The initial priority post-acquisition is to seamlessly bring the two organizations together with a focus on optimizing technology and service delivery across the shared advisor base. Advisors should continue to work directly with the SSG service team and will receive the same holistic, attentive service they have come to expect.
We recognize and value the contributions that Dan, Peter and the SSG management team have made over the last several decades to ensure the success of SSG. They’ve built a tremendous organization with a steadfast commitment to always operate in the best interests of RIAs. To that end, advisors should continue to work directly with the SSG service team and will receive the same holistic, attentive service they have come to expect. There will be no major organizational changes, and Peter, Dan, and key leadership at SSG are all planning to remain with Altruist and are excited to work alongside the Altruist leadership team.
The acquisition has no impact on advisor regulatory reporting requirements.
Yes, there will be more upcoming virtual and in-person events. We also sponsor many large industry events and would love to meet you. Additionally, the Altruist team looks forward to partipcating in the SSG Conference that will be taking place November 1-3 at Hilton Torrey Pines, CA.
Seamless access to the Altruist platform will be provided to SSG advisors very soon. You'll be able to test features, open new accounts, and get a feel for the platform. Pershing will remain the custodian for your clients' accounts that are custodied with SSG at Pershing. If you and your client decide to move an account to Altruist, then Altruist will become the new custodian. Opportunities to transition accounts via a completely digital conversion process will be made available at a future date.
The best place to follow the news on SSG is this page (www.altruist.com/ssg). We recommend bookmarking the page. We will also send emails for important communications including additional live Q&As, and opportunities to explore the Altruist platform.
Altruist serves firms of all sizes. We have no AUM minimums, industry low fees, and offer commission-free fractional share trading on ETFs, individual securities, and warrants. Every advisor gets their first 100 accounts free, then it’s $1 per account per month thereafter. And you can expect the same level of world-class service SSG has been known for, regardless of AUM.
There are no communication requirements. We're working on assets to share if you choose to do so.
Although we are one of the newer custodians, Altruist today is helping over 1,800 financial advisors keep their clients' money and investment safe. Because we do not have a retail arm like other custodians (and that will always be the case), it's not surprising that they may not have heard about us yet. You can share this brochure with your clients -- it includes details about our security, insurance, and compliance policies.
Your clients may encounter the news via press and media communications, and you should also feel free to communicate the news at your discretion. Nothing will be sent directly to your clients announcing the acquisition. A client one-pager about Altruist is available here.
Pershing is the custodian for your clients' accounts that are custodied with SSG at Pershing. Our plan is to maintain Pershing as a custodian for the foreseeable future so that you have no business disruption -- advisors should continue to work directly with the SSG service team to manage accounts that are custodied at Pershing.
If you and your client decide to move an account to Altruist, then Altruist Clearing will become the new custodian. This is a brochure you can share with your clients that explains who Altruist is, how we work with advisors like you to safeguard their assets, and what we stand for.
Yes, it's definitely possible! In the next few months when we introduce a Pershing data feed on Altruist, you'll be able to see the household's accounts in one place. You'll be invited to access the Altruist platform very soon where you'll be able to test features, open new accounts, and get a feel for the platform prior to deciding whether to transition your full book of business to Altruist. Pershing will remain the custodian for your clients' accounts that are custodied with SSG at Pershing. If you and your client decide to move an account to Altruist, then Altruist will become the new custodian for those accounts.
It is not clear when this will be live. However, you can open accounts entirely digitally on Altruist today.
Eventually, but it's not a significant part of our product offering today.
The custodian is responsible for providing account statements. Pershing will continue to provide statements for accounts that are custodied with SSG at Pershing. If you and your client decide to move the account to Altruist, then Altruist will provide the account statement.
