The folks at nearly three-dozen fund firms are expanding their distribution reach to RIAs through a giant mutual fund supermarket.

Jalina Lyn Kerr Schwab Advisor Services Managing Director, Head of Advisor Experience

On Tuesday (July 8), Jalina Kerr, head of advisor experience at Charles Schwab's Schwab Advisor Services, unveiled an expansion of the Westlake, Texas-based RIA custody giant's institutional no transaction fee (INTF) mutual fund platform for independent RIAs. The expansion includes adding 33 asset managers:

AB (AllianceBernstein);

Akre;

Alger;

AMG;

Resolute's American Beacon;

Artisan;

Baron;

Kornitzer's Buffalo;

Raymond James Investment Management's Carillon;

Cliffwater;

Federated Hermes;

Gamco's Gabelli;

AMG's Harding Loevner;

Hartford;

Jensen;

John Hancock;

Lazard;

Manning & Napier;

Matthews;

Natixis and its Loomis Sayles subsidiary;

New York Life's NYLI;

Oakmark, from Natixis' Harris Associates;

AMG's Parnassus;

Performance Trust;

Prudential's PGIM;

Franklin Templeton's Royce;

Segall Bryant;

Thornburg;

Victory;

Virtus;

Voya;

Wasatch; and

William Blair.

The Schwab team increased the INTF platform's size to 58 asset managers and about 2,000 funds, from 25 asset managers and more than 1,200 funds previously. Kerr notes that the platform's AUM has grown by 22 percent year-over-year since its last expansion and credits "exceptional adoption."

"This robust capability will provide independent advisors seamless access to the most trusted institutional funds, enhancing both advisor and client investment optionality," Kerr states.

RIA custodians' INTF platforms (like NTF ETF platforms) offer advisors the best of both the institutional and NTF platform worlds, by combining lower expense ratio institutional shares with an NTF feature. Thus, RIAs can use the platforms' funds while avoiding both trading commissions and higher expense ratios.

The Schwab folks first unveiled their INTF mutual fund platform less than four years ago in early 2021, then launched it in February 2022 with more than 130 funds from single asset manager, T. Rowe Price. Later that year, the Schwab team expanded the INTF platform to add 15 more fund firms and more than 800 funds (pushing it up to 16 firms and more than 930 funds in total). 

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