Schwab's RIA business keeps growing even as it reins in long-short strategies
For the chief information officer of a bank wealth unit
Schwab's custody business for independent advisors took in $120.1 billion in net new assets in the third quarter, up 47% from a year earlier, the firm reported on Thursday, Oct. 15.1
Schwab said it plans to let clients connect their own AI models to its servers, while blocking AI agents that log in on a client's behalf without authorization, CEO Rick Wurster said on the earnings call.1 Wurster said the authenticated approach lets Schwab secure authentication and limit access to the highest-risk actions, such as moving money; he said unauthorized login is "not a safe way for our clients to access Schwab."1
Schwab Advisor Services ended September with $5.85 trillion in client assets, up 17% from a year earlier, and Wurster said Schwab serves more than 16,000 RIAs.1
Wurster said Schwab is the first RIA custodian included in Claude for Financial Advisors, an arrangement that lets advisors reach Schwab Advisor Center from Claude through an authenticated connection.1
Wurster said Schwab is taking the same approach with retail traders, and said its AI assistant Charley, now available to US retail clients, will be expanded to all clients in the coming months.1
Schwab raised the minimum for its tax-aware long-short accounts to $10 million from $1 million last month, and $60.7 billion of the $187.9 billion in client margin loans at the end of September was tied to long-short strategies used by RIAs.1
Schwab is pairing a sanctioned, authenticated AI access path with a block on agents that use client credentials, a model other banks can compare against their own policies on agent access. The report does not say how Schwab tells the two kinds of access apart, which is the practical question for any institution copying it.
Wurster said Schwab will expand its Charley AI assistant to all retail clients in the coming months; the report gives no date for connecting clients' own AI models.1
Our take. Schwab now gives AI two doors: an authenticated Claude connection with money movement kept out of reach, and a block on agents logging in as the client. Examiners will ask which door your accounts have.
Action. Digital banking security: Find AI agents logging in with customer passwords; move them to authenticated API access that excludes money movement.
What our records say
Schwab's CEO calls AI a "real accelerant" for extending wealthy-client service to less affluent clients, and its first retail gen-AI feature, Portfolio Insights, has been live since May 2026.1 The profile describes a CEO who calls AI a 'real accelerant' for extending wealthy-client service to everyone, with a gen-AI knowledge assistant for service staff and an RIA programme.1
From our records
- The Charles Schwab Corporationbank · latest How Charley was built: employee testing, confirmation before any change (Oct 2026) · vendors Claude
- Claude (Anthropic)vendor · banks using it (8) Goldman, JPMorgan, BankUnited · alternatives Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT Enterprise, Gemini Enterprise