Brothers Trevor, Tim and Ryan Callan are among the first advisors to jump from one of the large US wirehouses as part of a programme launched in January by US discount broking giant, Charles Schwab, designed to lure advisors away from the large firms and start their own businesses. The three advisors left Merrill Lynch to start their own Registered Investment Advisory practice targeted at ultra-high net-worth individuals and families with the help of Charles Schwab, which is now the firm’s custody provider. In January, the institutional arm of Schwab offered loans of up to $500,000 as part of a pilot programme in 11 states including New York, California and Illinois to advisors with at least $75 million in assets under management who wish to leave traditional financial services companies to start their own independent firms. While the Callan brothers were reluctant to disclose all the details of the arrangement with Schwab, Tim and Ryan told WealthBriefing the discount brokerage provided the startup business with an optional line of credit, helped with transition costs and offset some of the risks involved in starting a new business. The three brothers collectively manage around $300 million of client assets. Mr Tim Callan said the trio hoped to achieve 90 per cent of the former asset levels to the new firm within a year; they currently manage assets at 55 per cent of their previous level. “We used to get offers on a regular basis which forced us to do due-diligence on most of the models out there. We found many of the wirehouses are the same, but the RIA model allows us to access thousands of funds and cut fees by going direct to institutional managers,” he said. Callan Capital charges fees based on assets under advice and targets individuals and families with between $5 and $10 million in assets. Schwab Institutional is a third-party provider of primarily custodial and trading support for around 5,000 independent investment advisors, according to the firm.