Schwab CEO: We Don't Want to Compete With Advisors

"There's 86% of the market we don't have that would be better served from someone in this audience or us serving them. So let's go after that together. We are all in on supporting your growth. It's part of the reason why we've got a close to $400 billion now affiliate program where we've directed flows into into our advisor network," Wurster added.

"So, we're trying to tell your story to help you win," he said. "We don't want to compete with you. And when we get into an individual situation where there's where there is an issue, we stand down, call me, let us know."

Wurster discussed several trends at Schwab and across the industry, including artificial intelligence and Gen Z investor behavior, while addressing an issue that Brown suggested may be worrying advisors who work with the company — that Schwab's growth will involve direct advice to consumers.

"When you think about one of our clients that goes into a wealth solution at Schwab, that relationship generally is cultivated over 10, 20, 30 years. They come to Schwab typically as a self-directed client, right? Their financial life becomes more complex. And they come into us and say, 'Hey, what do I do now? I have more money than I thought I'd have. I've got a more complex financial life than I thought they'd have.' And they love Schwab and they've been with us for 20 years," Wurster said.

"That's the client we serve with wealth. What you don't see us doing is going out and directly trying to win the wealth client into Schwab like an RIA does. And I think that's an important distinction. We have an important wealth business that absolutely we're trying to grow, but we're using it to serve our existing Schwab clients. We've got $6.5 trillion of retail client assets sitting on our platform, many of whom would be better off served by having more comprehensive advice."

This concern goes back at least to 2023, when Schwab announced it would automatically enroll retail clients with at least $10 million in assets into its private wealth services.

Breakaway Advisors Boosted Growth

Among other topics, Wurster touched on how Schwab's advisory assets grew by 42% in 2025, outpacing the 33% growth in retail client assets.

"Last year was a big year for breakaways and OpenArc to me was a watershed moment where you had a really big team break away from Merrill and with the support of Dynasty start a brand-new business where all of the sudden now they've got lots of equity in that," he said.

"I think if you're a big team sitting inside one of these big firms and you look at OpenArc and the success they've had making that transition and the equity value that they now sit on, you've got to be thinking this might be a good option. So it was a big year for breakaways."

(Merrill Lynch last year sued those breakaway advisors, Schwab, Dynasty and OpenArc, alleging a "pre-meditated corporate raid" of a lucrative Atlanta-based Merrill office. Schwab serves as custodian for OpenArc and owns a minority stake in Dynasty.)

Wurster also noted 2025 "was a big year of organic growth for the RIAs. So we saw this community really grow at an accelerated rate and then we took share and we're growing at a nice clip."

Schwab knows it's winning over its competitors by measuring a transfer of asset ratio.

"We can see when an asset leaves us to another custodian and we can see when assets come to us from other custodians and we win over two times more from other custodians than leaves us," he said. "So we're winning in the marketplace but it's really your success that's fueling our growth."

Gen Zers Are Embracing Schwab

A podcast host noted that a third of Schwab's 2025 new clients were Gen Z investors.

"We're crushing it with the young investor. And the reason we're crushing it with them is because we've got the combination of the platforms. We've got thinkorswim, which I think is the leading trading platform, great charting," Wurster said. "There's a trading venue for everybody at Schwab."

Gen Zers are mischaracterized as "all looking to go to the casino and and try to make money fast. And certainly there are a number of Gen Z who are doing that. But there's also a lot of thoughtful Gen Z investors and they're coming to Schwab," the CEO said, adding that Schwab is the most followed financial services firm on YouTube.

AI Will Change the Industry

Wurster expects artificial intelligence to be "huge" for financial services and said the stock market's recent negative reaction to news of Altruist's AI-based tax-planning software was surprising.

"I looked at it and said, 'This is the craziest thing I've ever seen,'" Wurster said, adding that the magnitude didn't make sense. Schwab brings technology to clients so if there's an AI tax-planning capability, that's great for clients, he said.

"AI is going to be huge. I think it's going to change things in our industry. It's going to change the way clients interact," he said. Schwab is using it to make its professional more efficient; client calls are being recorded and AI reads every transcript, which "surfaces opportunities to coach our people."

"There's no question that in five years we're likely to have an agentic experience where you're coming onto ... schwabadvisorcenter.com and you're speaking to something and getting your task done or the way we deliver tax trusts and estate information is changing now," Wurster said. "We bought an owner ownership stake in Wealth.com, which is an AI firm that delivers trusts using AI. All this stuff is revolutionary and making a big difference. It's going to allow us to serve clients in a different way."