{"id":450131,"date":"2026-05-28T22:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T22:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/450131\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T22:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T22:23:08","slug":"schwab-expanding-advice-not-at-risk-of-bumping-into-rias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/450131\/","title":{"rendered":"Schwab: Expanding Advice Not At Risk of \u2018Bumping Into\u2019 RIAs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charles Schwab\u2019s head of advisor services made the case to press on Thursday that expanding the firm\u2019s retail wealth advisory division would not compete with its registered investment advisor custodial clients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a $37 trillion opportunity out there for all of us,\u201d Managing Director Jon Beatty said during a mid-year virtual press briefing, referencing assets not yet held by RIAs. \u201cWe rarely bump into each other in the marketplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beatty noted the vast wealth in the U.S. that is \u201clooking for the fiduciary model for RIAs,\u201d and emphasized the firm\u2019s focus on working with its 16,000 RIA clients across custodial services and other products, including investment options and client banking services.<\/p>\n

Schwab Wealth Advisory, its full-service wealth management division for retail clients, has offices in 20 markets and plans to expand to 10 more this year, according to a spokesperson and comments from executives during an investor day on May 14<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related:Carson Group Launches Estate Planning Push<\/a><\/p>\n

The wealth advisory offices are separate from the firm\u2019s client-facing retail branches, which are staffed by financial consultants and branch team members, according to the spokesperson. The firm has already been adding to that branch<\/a> network in recent years, having announced in 2025 that it would open 16 new branches while expanding or relocating 25 more, for a division overseeing $771 billion in retail assets and 2,120 financial consultants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason for that in-market presence is so that wealth advisors can strengthen regional connectivity with Schwab\u2019s financial consultants that they partner with and retail clients in those markets,\u201d the spokesperson wrote via email. \u201cWealth advisors mostly meet with clients virtually, as they always have, and in partnership with branch financial consultants.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trade publication RIABiz first reported on the expansion.<\/p>\n

Beatty told reporters the firm has been and will continue to be transparent with RIAs about its retail wealth management business. He said Schwab Wealth Advisory has been around for over a decade and exists so Schwab financial consultants can refer clients. He also noted that those referrals also go to RIAs through its Schwab Advisor Network<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no other custodian that has referred more business to advisors than Charles Schwab, and I think by multiples,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s how much we believe in the RIA business model that we would refer our own retail clients at the scale that we do every year for advisors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Watson, SVP, head of securities at Axos Bank, which provides clearing and custodial services to RIAs, said he sees the wealth services expansion as a \u201cmonumental shift\u201d in the industry.<\/p>\n

Related:Judge Tightens Restrictions on Prime Capital in Edelman Lawsuit<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c30 branches isn\u2019t a pilot\u2014it\u2019s a strategy,\u201d said Watson, whose Axos competes with Schwab for RIA clients.<\/p>\n

Watson said Schwab has been inching toward becoming a full-service financial provider for years, with its push to provide financial advice to wealthier clients as a clear indicator that it will funnel client referrals to its own advisors.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaying there\u2019s enough for everyone is a reasonable thing to say publicly,\u201d Watson said. \u201cBut the market doesn\u2019t work that way. Every client those advisors serve in those branches that didn\u2019t go with, or stay with an independent RIA is \u2026 still a lost client relationship.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the call, Beatty said he has always told clients to email him if they see any potential conflicts. He said he received one email in the last 12 months, and that it was resolved \u201cin about 15 minutes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, today you\u2019re hearing our passion for serving advisors,\u201d Beatty said. \u201cBut at the same time, we have to be passionate about serving our retail clients. \u2026 Investors have been asking everybody for more help and advice, and we will respond to that in the marketplace to meet our clients in their time of need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related:Deals & Moves: Beacon Pointe Acquires $360M Female-Founded RIA<\/a><\/p>\n

During the call, Beatty stressed Schwab\u2019s efforts to go beyond custodial services by offering advisors access to investment and banking services, as well as consulting and guidance.<\/p>\n

Jalina Kerr, managing director, advisor experience and platform solutions at Schwab, said a program introduced last year, where company ambassadors help RIAs seeking to expand into higher-net-worth clients, had been \u201coverwhelmed by the interest\u201d from advisors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kerr said one of the hottest topics is finding liquidity solutions for RIAs working with UHNW clients, which the ambassador can work with the advisor to propose. She said the Westlake, Texas-based Schwab would continue to add services to the program, including lending to small business owners.<\/p>\n

Alison Dooher, Schwab’s managing director, wealth services and platforms, spoke about the firm\u2019s focus on artificial intelligence to create a \u201csuper-agent\u201d for advisors using the firm’s custodial and other services, which can both answer questions across platforms and raise issues proactively.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThink about it sitting across your operational needs, but also across the portfolio management tools and performance reporting tools that a lot of our advisors utilize, so across the entire tech stack,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is very similar to how RIAs are thinking about it within their own businesses, sitting across the various capabilities \u2026 that is the progression you will start to see from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schwab CEO Rick Wurster has spoken extensively about the firm\u2019s AI integrations<\/a> after its stock took a hit earlier this year, as investors became spooked by the idea that AI could undercut financial services businesses. Other publicly-listed firms that saw a brief sell-off included Ameriprise Financial, LPL Financial, Raymond James, and Stifel Financial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charles Schwab\u2019s head of advisor services made the case to press on Thursday that expanding the firm\u2019s retail…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,246,111,139,69,244,245],"class_list":["post-450131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}