Previously, if you wished to invest in the stock market, you would have had to open an account with a brokerage and direct all your trades through them. Given the communication friction that existed, this invariably meant you would cede some control over your funds to your manager at the brokerage firm to ensure you made the right trades at the right time. In the current age anyone can trade online from home, and whilst you still need to open an account with the broker, you now have the option to go for a discount broker, who only provides you with a platform to invest through, and a Full-Service Broker.
Let's discuss Full-Service brokerage firms. While online investing makes it easier for people to invest, brokerage firms realised that customers would still require guidance and advice on how to invest their money. As a result, the full-service broker was born.
What is a full service brokerage account?
A full service broker, as the name suggests, offers you services that exceed the realms of practical ability, and offer you investing advice, tips and general portfolio management services. Under a discount broker, you are likely to find some of the following services which are most common at full service brokerage firms.
1. Portfolio Management.
Unlike a discount brokerage account, a full service demat account grants you not only the ability not only to be able to buy and sell equity in order to create a portfolio but also offers you their council vis a vis what goes in your portfolio. A portfolio needs to be revisited routinely in order to trim the fat and make new additions, a service a full-service brokerage account will get you.
2. Financial Planning.
As an investor, you are likely to have a number of goals for your investment. A full service broker will help cater to these, trying to provide you with the quickest, yet safest path towards attaining these goals.
3. Access to additional opportunities.
While IPOs are open to all, you have a better chance of getting your allotment if you go through a full service brokerage account, as the firm has the expertise that can help you get additional opportunities such as IPOs. This is also in part due to you getting the services of an entire firm if you have a full service broker. Firms with banking divisions, for instance, could employ that division to help you get said IPO allotments.
Conclusion.
A full service brokerage account is in effect, a management service or your investment portfolio. At a full-service brokerage firm, you are assigned to a financial advisor/broker, who tends to all your investing needs, and is your point of contact to the entire firm, the services of which your full service broker channels to you.
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