Altruist picks up ex-TD director to lead market strategy

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Startup custodian Altruist has hired an ex-TD Ameritrade director to lead the company’s market strategy and help develop its offering.

Pete Dorsey, TD’s former national managing director of institutional sales and relationship management, will now serve as chief strategy and revenue officer at Altruist.

“Pete will be leading our go-to-market initiatives as well as overseeing our entire advisor lifecycle,” Altruist CEO Jason Wenk said in an email. Dorsey will work closely with the brand and marketing team as well as help the company develop a more scalable and automated onboarding experience, he added.

Dorsey is the latest member of TD Ameritrade’s leadership team to part ways with the company following Schwab’s acquisition of the firm and subsequent layoffs. TD Ameritrade’s former head of digital assets, Sunayna Tuteja, recently took a position as CIO of the Federal Reserve System, according to a LinkedIn update.

Prior to his 15-year tenure at TD Ameritrade, Pete Dorsey spent six years at Fidelity Investments.

Altruist

Other TD Ameritrade executives who oversaw its RIA custody business have left the firm for competitors and RIAs, although some have gone on to join the leadership team at Schwab Advisor Services.

As for Dorsey, he is joining a growing team at Altruist, which is a new, tech-focused entrant to the multi-trillion-dollar RIA custody business.

Altruist, which clears trades through Apex Clearing, has on-boarded approximately 600 firms in the last four months, Wenk toldFinancial Planning in an interview in mid-February. Altruist has about 80 employees on staff, he said.

Altruist announced that F. William McNabb III, a former CEO of Vanguard, would be joining the company’s board at the beginning of this year. And the company recently added Vanguard model portfolios to its platform, for which Altruist charges a delivery fee of 12 basis points per year, according to Wenk.

With Dorsey, Altruist is gaining a long-time veteran in RIA custody. Prior to his 15-year tenure at TD Ameritrade, he spent six years at Fidelity Investments, according to LinkedIn.

“We’re very fortunate to have someone of his caliber join our team,” Wenk said in the email.

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