Family Offices Most Billionaires have what are called "Family Offices" to manage their wealth which might include a CFO who has a background in finance (Wall Street), legal and accounting, not to mention advanced financial planning and wealth preservation and asset protection knowledge. The other members of the team might include a head trader, assistants, lawyers, accountants, etc. The family office is most likely structured as a Limited Partnership with other family members involved, including those who represent non-profits and the like. The type of brokers they use are the same as others, but with access to all the firms have to offer in premium services and products. These brokers have departments that service family offices with logistical and operational support. The likely names are attached to Goldman, Merrill and other botique firms that specialize in these services. Some family offices are registered as broker dealers because of the holdings of the owners, licenses of the professionals serving them, etc. As for trading the family office more than likely called the broker dealer or uses a software application to "work" larger orders so that the volume doesn't affect the trading prices of the companies involved which are most likely insider types of transactions that resemble hedge funds, corporations and others who trade in the same volume. Most broker dealers have desks set up to handle larger transactions called prime brokerage. Source - Quora ----------- I know one person (a woman...someone I dated in college) that I consider to be ultra rich via her bank accounts alone > 40 million. Her 3 other siblings equally same worth. Together they use "family office". wrbtrader
https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddie...st-who-beat-the-odds-to-become-a-billionaire/ Billionaire with just schwab and fidelity account.
When I was at Robertson Stevens (now-defunct investment bank), in San Francisco, Barbara Streisand was their client. I would say Schwab has a bunch of big shots, Merill Lynch, Vanguard has ultra-rich clients.
My boomer parents use Merrill Lynch and before that Solomon Smith and Barney. They pay like $50 commissions per trade using actual brokers. Years ago my dad didn't even know you could trade through discount brokers. He thought his way was all there was. My mom worked at Merrill Lynch and he was all "You could probably get a discount through your mother." When I told him I only paid $5 per trade she was like "No it's not that low with my discount." When I first started trading it was like $7 per trade. Now it's free. The evolution of business.
A friend wants to open account with E*TRADE, I suggested IB or Tradestation. Fidelity doesn't and Ameritrade don't open account in his country and Schwab is 25K minimum. He felt plateform IB and TS were too much for him to use. Is E*TRADE a direct ECN for price excution and any other downside need to be awere of ?
Ultra and very wealthy people don’t go for the lowest commissions. It’s negligible to the size of their portfolios. They go for the services those commissions pay for: access to financial products, legal advice, information, and tailor made solutions for their specific situations.