# Schwab pledges continued custody support for RIAs under $100 million URL: https://www.financialadvsr.com/article/schwab-pledges-continued-custody-support-for-rias-under-100-652d7b Published: October 28, 2026 By: Nora Kessler, Practice & Technology Correspondent Section: News Publisher: Financial ADVSR (https://www.financialadvsr.com) Schwab's CEO pledged at the Boston IMPACT conference to keep serving small RIAs as rival Fidelity moved to drop firms below $100 million. WealthManagement.com reported that Schwab chief executive Rick Wurster opened the firm's annual IMPACT conference in Boston by pledging to keep supporting the roughly 11,000 RIA clients that hold less than $100 million in assets with the firm. The report said the remarks came shortly after Fidelity Investments announced that it would drop firms of similar size from its custody platform. Fidelity's move was first confirmed to AdvisorHub by a company spokesperson on October 1. According to that report, RIAs were informed that they need to keep at least $100 million in client assets on Fidelity's custody platform or exit. AdvisorHub said firms that come in under the threshold have until June 30, 2027 to either increase their Fidelity balances or unwind their arrangement with the custodian. The threshold counts only assets held at Fidelity, not a firm's total assets under management. Financial Planning reported that Fidelity already had a $100 million minimum for new RIA custody clients, and that the October notice was the first time it applied the rule retroactively to existing firms. The scale of the change is still unclear. According to The Wealth Advisor, Fidelity places the share of its roughly $5.8 trillion in assets held for clearing and custody at under 1% for the firms in question, and says most of them already use several custodians. Fidelity did not immediately say how many firms received the notice, according to AdvisorHub. The Wealth Advisor also cited an outside estimate, based on regulatory filings, of 1,150 firms below the minimum. That estimate and Fidelity's own figure measure different things, so the two should not be compared directly. At IMPACT, WealthManagement reported, Wurster said Schwab would keep focusing on custody for RIAs with under $100 million in assets, and that the firm would not tell advisors what size or shape their practice should take. The same report said Schwab and other custodians are reportedly courting advisors who may leave Fidelity. A separate WealthManagement article on custodians pursuing Fidelity clients reported that Betterment has offered a platform-fee waiver through the end of 2028 to advisors who move their custody business to it. Wurster also addressed Schwab's long-short tax strategy offering, which the firm limited to clients with at least $10 million in assets after those strategies were oversubscribed. Schwab's own release on October 28 gave a broader count. It said Schwab Advisor Services supports more than 17,000 independent RIAs, and it announced AI tools available in Schwab Advisor Center, including an advisor-focused product from Anthropic that the release describes as the first offered by an RIA custodian. The same release said Schwab has been a minority investor in Wealth.com since April 2025. The 11,000 figure cited by WealthManagement refers to smaller firms, while the 17,000 figure covers RIAs overall, so the two should be read separately. Schwab is a publicly traded company listed on the NYSE under the symbol SCHW. Its SEC filings show its headquarters in Westlake, Texas, after it moved from San Francisco effective January 1, 2021. Within the company, the Advisor Services unit caters to independent registered investment advisory firms, offering custody, trading, banking, trust and support offerings. Schwab's August 27 Business Wire preview described the 36th annual IMPACT conference, held October 27 to 29, as the largest and longest-running gathering of independent advisors. Fidelity Investments, legally FMR LLC, is privately held and headquartered in Boston. Its profile lists Abigail Johnson as chief executive and chairman, and the firm was founded in 1946 by Edward C. Johnson II. A D&B profile puts its discretionary assets at $5.9 trillion as of December 2024, with $15.1 trillion in assets under administration. WealthManagement describes Fidelity as the second-largest custodian after Schwab. The story has been building for several weeks. RIABiz reported the Fidelity move on October 2, saying advisors posting on LinkedIn had surfaced it and that Nexus Strategies had tipped off the outlet. RIABiz also reported that Michael Kitces criticized the move and said he expected it to backfire. Schwab created National RIA Day, which it unveiled at IMPACT 2026, to take place on February 17, 2027 and on the third Wednesday of each February after that, according to its announcement. What comes next is the June 30, 2027 deadline for firms below Fidelity's threshold. Our review of the reporting found no Fidelity press release or SEC filing on the custody change, so the details rest on the spokesperson's confirmation and the figures Fidelity has provided. Advisors affected by the change will be watching how custodians compete for their business, and whether Fidelity publishes more detail on how many firms are affected. Key facts: - Fidelity requires RIAs to hold at least $100 million in client assets on its custody platform, counting only assets held at Fidelity (AdvisorHub). - Firms below the minimum have until June 30, 2027 to comply or end their custodial relationship with Fidelity (AdvisorHub). - WealthManagement reported that Schwab supports about 11,000 RIA clients with less than $100 million in assets. - Schwab's October 28 release said Schwab Advisor Services supports more than 17,000 independent RIAs. - Fidelity says affected firms represent under 1% of its roughly $5.8 trillion in clearing and custody assets under administration (The Wealth Advisor). Why it matters: For advisors whose firms hold less than $100 million at Fidelity, the threshold sets a deadline to consolidate assets, add a second custodian, or move, and the June 30, 2027 date gives time to plan. For team leaders and recruiters, custodian outreach and fee waivers change the economics of any move. For firm leaders, the change shows how large custodians are sorting their RIA relationships by size. Sources: - WealthManagement.com: https://www.wealthmanagement.com/ria-news/schwab-ceo-wurster-commits-to-rias-with-client-assets-under-100m - InvestmentNews: https://www.investmentnews.com/goria/practice-management/schwab-impact-2026-full-conference-coverage/268757 - pressroom.aboutschwab.com: https://pressroom.aboutschwab.com/press-releases/press-release/2026/Schwab-IMPACT-2026-Spotlight-on-AI-Growth-and-the-Future-of-Independent-Advice/default.aspx - nasdaq.com: https://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/schwab-impactr-2026-spotlight-ai-growth-and-future-independent-advice-2026-08-27 - stockhouse.com: https://stockhouse.com/news/press-releases/2026/10/28/schwab-advisor-services-tm-expands-ai-inside-schwab-advisor-center-and-across - investingnews.com: https://investingnews.com/schwab-advisor-services-announces-national-ria-day-the-first-annual-day-celebrating-independent-registered-investment-advisors/ - wealthmanagement.com: https://www.wealthmanagement.com/ria-news/schwab-ria-member-program-to-launch-with-10-firms-in-2026