Wells Fargo Advisors, which competes with other businesses to work with RIAs, has launched a new service that it hopes brings it a competitive edge.

Wells Fargo Advisors has rolled out a service to help industry figures who want to become RIAs.

The offering is a custody service for Registered Investment Advisors as delivered through First Clearing, WFA’s subsidiary. It provides middle-office support from an introducing broker-dealer, TradePMR. First Clearing has worked with non-affiliated broker-dealers before.

A number of RIAs have been launched in recent years – as well as changed via mergers and acquisitions – driving a need for platforms and back- and middle-office support. Organizations such as Wells Fargo Advisors and LPL Financial Advisors, among others, compete for this kind of business.

“As we’ve watched the needs and expectations of our clients shift, we’re also keenly aware of the shifting needs of financial advisors,” John Peluso, head of First Clearing, said. “This model provides financial advisors [with] the flexibility they desire as an independent business owner and [gived] their clients the ability to work with a locally owned firm.”

Advisors in the TradePMR program will have access both to its advisor technology (Fusion) and to the Wells Fargo Advisors desktop technology (SmartStation), contact management systems and innovations such as the Envision® planning process.

At the end of December last year Wells Fargo Advisors held $1.5 trillion of client assets.