David Choate is COO at CAPIS.
What was the highlight of 2025?
The clear highlight for CAPIS in 2025 was our acquisition of TD Securities’ Plan Sponsor Services business, a milestone that fundamentally strengthened our position in the commission management and commission recapture space. The transaction brought meaningful scale to our business, putting us on pace to grow top-line revenue by 30% for the year, but its significance went well beyond the numbers. TD’s program had long been regarded as one of the most respected in the industry, and integrating its client base, operational expertise, and long-standing relationships into CAPIS has been transformative.
A major success factor was the seamless transition of the team. We retained the majority of TD’s Plan Sponsor Services staff, including Tim Conway, who served as Managing Director at TD and now leads Plan Sponsor Services at CAPIS. His leadership and the institutional knowledge he and his colleagues brought over ensured continuity for clients from day one.
At the same time, TD continues to serve as an executing broker in our Global Trading Network, reinforcing a relationship that benefits plan sponsors and asset managers alike. Altogether, the acquisition deepened our capabilities, broadened our reach, and solidified CAPIS’ leadership in commission management.
What surprised you in 2025?
One of the biggest surprises in 2025 was the shift we saw in U.S. equity commission rates. Even as headline commission levels continued their long-term decline, a meaningful share of managers in the CAPIS universe—42%—actually increased rates during the year.
The reasons varied: one manager with over $20 billion in AUM cited the lack of stock splits for raising cents-per-share rates, while another adopted basis-point structures more common in non-U.S. markets.
Despite the different approaches, the underlying theme was the same: research. Active managers continue to rely on commissions to acquire research and brokerage services designed to support their investment decision making process. The trend underscored an important dynamic that active managers are willing to adjust commission structures when needed to maintain the research that underpins their investment process.
What trends are getting underway that people may not know about but will be important?
A trend that is still early but gaining real momentum is the renewed focus on the role active management plays in supporting healthy, well-functioning markets. Over the past year, we’ve seen more conversations across allocators, managers, and policymakers about the importance of research, price discovery, and merit-based capital allocation. These aren’t new concepts, but they are taking on fresh relevance as the industry reassesses what underpins long-term market quality.
Active managers perform functions that markets rely on every day: evaluating businesses, shaping liquidity, and helping investors understand the drivers behind company performance. As attention returns to these fundamentals, we expect to see more dialogue around how to support a strong and diverse active management community. That could include updates to regulatory frameworks, improvements to the environment for IPOs, and policies designed to encourage robust public markets.
This isn’t about positioning one investment style against another, but rather recognizing that a vibrant market ecosystem depends on maintaining the core functions that active management provides…the allocation of capital based on merit rather than weighting in an index.
