TD Ameritrade is no longer a company you can open an account with. Charles Schwab acquired it, merged its systems into Schwab's, and by May 2024 had moved every remaining client onto the Schwab platform. The brand now lives on only through thinkorswim, which is Schwab's active-trader software. Any page that still presents TD Ameritrade as an independent, actively regulated broker is out of date.
This matters for a simple reason. A reader who believes the old article's claim that TD Ameritrade "operates without regulatory oversight" would be misinformed about a US broker that was, in fact, one of the most heavily regulated in the market. The correction is the whole point of this rewrite.
TD Ameritrade's roots go back to the 1970s. The Ameritrade name came from a discount brokerage founded in 1971, and the TD Ameritrade brand was created in 2006 when Ameritrade merged with TD Waterhouse. By the time Schwab bought it, the firm was one of the largest retail brokerages in the United States, with thousands of employees and its own branch footprint. Nineteen years as a public, regulated company is not a record consistent with the "no oversight" claim.
The acquisition timeline from 2019 to 2024
Schwab announced the acquisition in November 2019 in a deal valued at about USD 26 billion. The transaction closed on 6 October 2020, and Schwab began folding Ameritrade's systems into its own infrastructure. Integration ran across five client transition groups during 2023 and 2024.
The final group converted to the Schwab platform in May 2024. After that, TD Ameritrade, Inc. and its affiliate TDAC filed Uniform Requests for Broker-Dealer Withdrawal with the SEC and FINRA. Schwab's 2024 annual report states that as of 31 December 2024, neither entity is registered as a broker-dealer with the SEC or FINRA. In plain terms, the standalone broker-dealer ceased to exist, and its accounts are Schwab accounts now.
What happened to client accounts and money
About USD 1.9 trillion in client assets moved across more than 17 million client accounts, including roughly 7,000 registered investment advisers. Positions, cost basis, and history were transferred into Schwab accounts. Account numbers changed, and the old TD Ameritrade login credentials stopped working once the migration reached each group.
One practical change many former clients noticed was the cash sweep. TD Ameritrade had offered relatively generous sweep rates, while Schwab's default sweep has historically paid less, so some clients moved idle cash into money market funds to earn more. That is a terms difference, not a safety difference, but it affects anyone holding cash between trades, so check the sweep setting on your Schwab account.
thinkorswim survived as Schwab's trading platform
thinkorswim did not disappear. Schwab kept the platform and integrated it as its flagship active-trader product on desktop, web, and mobile. Schwab also launched "Schwab Trading Powered by Ameritrade" in 2023, combining thinkorswim with Schwab's own trading tools. If you used thinkorswim at TD Ameritrade, you now use it through a Schwab account, and the charting, scanners, and paper-trading features carried over.
The older TD Ameritrade API that many third-party apps connected to was retired with the migration. Tools that still advertise "TD Ameritrade support" without mentioning Schwab have not been updated, which is itself a signal about that tool's maintenance. Reconnect any portfolio tracker or trading bot to Schwab's current API, using OAuth approval you control from Schwab's security settings.
Regulation and protections under Schwab
Before the merger, TD Ameritrade was a US-regulated broker-dealer registered with the SEC and FINRA and a member of SIPC. The original article's claim that it "operates without regulatory oversight" is false and should not be repeated. Today those accounts sit inside Schwab, which is itself SEC-registered, FINRA-member, and SIPC-member, and is subject to the same US broker-dealer framework plus ongoing examination.
SIPC protects securities customers up to USD 500,000, including a USD 250,000 limit for cash, if a broker fails. It does not protect against market losses, which is a distinction many summaries blur. Brokerage cash may be swept to an affiliated bank, and the specific sweep, insurance, and excess-coverage terms should be read on Schwab's own disclosures rather than assumed.
Broker-dealers in the US operate under a layered rulebook. The SEC sets federal securities rules, FINRA enforces conduct standards and examines member firms, and SIPC provides the bankruptcy protection described above. Schwab, like TD Ameritrade before it, sits inside all three. That is the opposite of "no regulatory oversight," and anyone evaluating the firm should weigh the actual supervisory structure rather than the false claim in the old text.
Fees, minimums and what carried over
Schwab carried over the pricing TD Ameritrade was known for. Online US stock and ETF trades cost USD 0 in commissions, and options cost USD 0.65 per contract with no base fee. There is no account minimum. Futures and options on futures carry separate fees, and forex is offered through Schwab's platform rather than a standalone TD Ameritrade venue, so confirm those specific schedules before trading them.
Margin borrowing is available and carries interest. Schwab's listed margin rate has at times been around 10 percent, but the rate tiers change with the size of the debit and with broader rate moves, so read the current schedule rather than quoting a figure from a forum. Options and futures also carry margin and settlement mechanics that differ from equities, and these positions are not covered by SIPC in the same way a settled stock holding is.
How forex and futures fit now
TD Ameritrade offered forex and futures through thinkorswim, but forex was always a small, higher-spread part of its business compared with dedicated currency brokers. After the merger those activities continue under Schwab, which provides futures and forex trading alongside its core stock and options suite. If currency pairs are your main interest, compare Schwab's FX spreads and conditions against a specialist, because a stock-and-options broker is rarely the cheapest place to trade FX, and the conditions differ by account type.
For context, dedicated forex brokers may quote tighter spreads on major pairs and permit higher leverage, but they often sit under offshore regulators with weaker recourse for a retail client. Schwab's appeal was never the cheapest FX. It was the integration of trading, banking, and research under one US-regulated roof. Match the venue to the asset you actually trade, and do not open a Schwab account expecting professional-grade currency spreads that a specialist provides.
Education and in-person support after the merge
Schwab kept and expanded TD Ameritrade's investor education library, including thinkorswim tutorials and paper-trading. It also brought a large physical footprint: more than 400 branch offices across the United States, which former TD Ameritrade clients who valued local help now share. For self-directed traders the education matters more than the branches, but both are part of the merged offering, and the combination is broader than what either firm offered alone before 2020.
What to do if you had or want a TD Ameritrade account
This article describes the Schwab-TD Ameritrade integration using Schwab's own 2024 annual report and public regulatory records. It is not investment advice. Confirm current account terms, fees, and protections on Schwab's official disclosures, because terms change and this summary may lag.