Custodial giants facing increased competition from startups in recent years have a newly rebranded and reorganized rival for business among registered investment advisory firms.
Equity Advisor Solutions and ETC Brokerage — two companies owned by Equity Trust Company, a Westlake, Ohio-based custodian of self-directed individual retirement accounts — merged together under the name of Innovayte with ex-Hightower Chief Solutions Officer Catherine “Cat” Davies as the CEO, the firms said Oct. 19. As part of ramping up a “sleepy business” of $3.4 billion in primarily alternative investment assets under custody, Innovayte is dropping an external vendor, Axos Advisor Services, to do its own clearing, Davies said.
Innovayte will be targeting RIAs with between $100 million to $800 million in assets under management as the company focuses on the “entrepreneurial spirit of advisors and the next generation” in the industry, Davies said in an interview…
