Thank you for choosing TradingFront as your business partner! We are here to help you with the onboarding process.
If you are an existing client with IB, you will find our onboarding process is pretty straightforward.
TradingFront and the custodian - Interactive Brokers
To use TradingFront’s white-label client onboarding feature and rebalancing/trading directly in your TradingFront portal, you must have an F-account (RIA master account) through our affiliated broker at IB. Those two features require a broker-to-broker connectivity and will work only for your clients under your F-account opened through us.
Our affiliated broker acts as a fully-disclosed introducing broker to IB and serves as your servicing broker. IB is the execution and clearing broker as well as the custodian. Having an F-account under our affiliated broker will allow you to leverage the full capacity of TradingFront while having access to IB's existing solution (Trader Workstation and Account Management).
If you an existing customer at IB, there are two options for you to work with TradingFront:
- Link your entire existing F-account at IB to TradingFront’s affiliated broker (Marsco)
- Open a new F-account with TradingFront’s affiliated broker (Marsco)
F-account linkage
If you have an F-account with IB, you can link that F-account to our affiliated broker-dealer without applying for a new F-account. The sub-accounts under your F-accounts will be linked to us with your F-account. Your clients' account numbers will not change, their historical data stays the same, and IB is still the executing broker/custodian.
The F-account linkage request must be submitted directly in your IB Account Management. Keep in mind that all of your sub-accounts must log in to IB Account Management and affirm the linkage request. For compliance reasons, there is no exception.
IB will only process the F-account linkage when all your sub-accounts have confirmed. If you submit an F-account linkage request, IB will not process the linkage for your sub-account on an account-by-account basis. Please refer to this help center article for the F-account linkage and read it carefully.
If your clients do not normally log in to IB, the affirmation process can be time-consuming. That is why opening a new F-account may be a better solution.
New F-account
You should be able to submit a master account application within 20 minutes, and it will be reviewed/approved by Interactive Brokers, normally around a week or two. However, given the current environment, it might take even longer.
Please click "Financial Advisory Account Application" to start a new master account application and make sure to choose "Financial Advisor."
Once your new F-account is opened, you can link your clients from your old F-account to your new F-account when you see fit in the future. This account-level linkage does not require your clients to log in to IB. It can be done within your TradingFront portal.
You should maintain your old F-account with IB in case you do not like working with us. We sure hope you will like working with us! :)
Non-IB Accounts data integration
If you have accounts with TDA and/or Schwab, we can request an ongoing data delivery to TradingFront, which gives us read-only access based on daily data. With this data pipeline, we can aggregate your client data from multiple custodians in your TradingFront portal.
Portal setup and training
Once you have your F-account approved or linked to us, we will deliver your portal within just two or three business days. Welcome to your journey with TradingFront! We will provide you with initial training for free.