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Before you can use any of the alternative methods of opening Advisor or Fully Disclosed Broker client accounts described in this guide, you must first open your Advisor or Fully Disclosed master account, which you can do directly from our website. You can also choose to use our standard application methods for your clients.

Click below for a complete summary of the steps required to open Advisor and Broker master and client accounts.

• Registered Advisors
• Fully Disclosed Brokers

Advisors and Fully Disclosed Brokers can create client account templates in Account Management to save and re-use application information for new client accounts. Click below to learn more:

• Advisor Client Account Templates
• Broker Client Account Templates

Advisors and Fully Disclosed Brokers can also:

• Manage Registration Tasks for a Client Account

Registered Advisor Account Structure

• Advisors who manage client accounts in excess of state registration minimums (generally 16 or more accounts and US $25 million in assets) must be registered under local regulatory law (e.g. Registered Investment Advisors (RIA) for US securities and Commodity Trading Advisors (CTA) for US commodities).
• Advisor master account holders must be 21 or older.

Fully Disclosed Broker Account Structure

• Fully disclosed brokers provide their clients with customer service and marketing. Broker clients can electronically trade or the broker may input trades for the client.
• Fully disclosed brokers can open client accounts using fully electronic or semi-electronic applications.
• Fully disclosed brokers can add Advisor, Proprietary Trading Group STL and Multiple Hedge Fund master accounts to their broker account structure. Each Advisor, Proprietary Trading Group STL and Multiple Hedge Fund master account holder can add client, sub and hedge fund accounts as required.
• Brokers can trade for themselves in the Proprietary Account for Broker-Dealers.
• All fees, commission and interest owed to the broker are first sent to the broker's Master account and then swept nightly to the Proprietary Account for Broker-Dealers.

Differences Between the Master Account and the Proprietary Account for Broker-Dealers

As a Fully Disclosed Broker, you will have two IB accounts in your name:

• The Master Account, whose Account ID begins with an "I" prefix. Use this account to add client accounts and link existing client accounts. You can fund this account and can perform the tasks described here.
• The Proprietary Account for Broker-Dealers, which is used for the your own proprietary trading, as well as the collection of client fees, commissions and interest owed to you. The account ID for this account begins with a "U" prefix.