Why First Southwest Co. as a clearing firm?
First Southwest Co. has been nothing short of excellent to work with. The company staff has been friendly, helpful, responsive, and they absolutely remember who the customer is. They have a company wide policy of a person answering the phone both at the switchboard and individual extension. First Southwest Co. has all of the resources any broker could want to accomplish virtually any transaction with the exception of commodities and foreign currency conversions. First Southwest Co. is located in downtown Dallas, Texas. and has a history dating to 1946. First Southwest is a major player in the Municipal Bond underwriting arena. The firm clears for more then 60 FINRA firms and registered investment advisors nationwide. Finally, First Southwest Co. is one of the few clearing firms that will work through issues to customize an arrangement that will meet a broker's needs. Unlike many larger firms, First Southwest Co. is flexible and its top executives are available to Brookstone Securities, Inc. and it's brokers when necessary. The following is a quote directly from First Southwest's website that we have found to be absolutely true: "While many competitive clearing services insist that broker/dealers adjust to their systems, First Southwest Company's philosophy is to adapt to the client's preferred way of doing business".
Brookstone also has an arrangement with Schwab Institutional for a mutual fund money management platform. The rep is free to choose whether to use Schwab or FSW in managed money arrangements such as Wraps. Please speak with your representative at Brookstone about the advantages and disadvantages of both firms.