The advisory bill for wealthy Charles Schwab clients is about to look different. The shift is sharp enough to unsettle the calculation that has long kept high-net-worth investors inside the brokerage.
Starting Jan. 1, 2027, Schwab Wealth Advisory (SWA) clients with $10 million to $25 million will see their marginal advisory rate rise from 0.30% to 0.45% on those assets.
This is a 50% increase for that tier, while accounts holding $5 million to $10 million move from 0.50% to 0.55%, Citywire reported.
The brokerage is also raising its threshold for referring investors to outside registered investment advisors (RIAs) from $2 million to $5 million on Jan. 5, 2027, according to the same Citywire report.
The change will keep more investors within Schwab’s advisory operation as its tiered fees increase, widening the impact of the new rates.
Schwab’s new fee tiers raise the cost of high-net-worth advisory accounts
SWA managed about $218 billion in client assets as of the end of 2025, RIABiz reported, making it one of the largest advisory operations in the country. Its rates are marginal, meaning the higher fee applies only to assets inside the specified tier.
The repricing targets the top two brackets while leaving accounts under $5 million untouched, keeping the 0.80% rate in place for portfolios up to $1 million.
The quarterly minimum fee that smaller accounts currently pay will be eliminated starting in the fourth quarter of 2026. Schwab is also introducing a product fee for accounts that use outside asset managers.
That product fee, separate from the tiered advisory fee, comes in at 0.35% for equities held in third-party SMAs, 0.15% for bonds and other fixed-income holdings, and 0.10% for municipal bond ladders, American Banker reported.
The firm stated that most existing clients will see no change in overall fees, and that asset aggregation could reduce costs for some households.
Schwab raises the referral floor and keeps more investors in-house
Below the new $5 million threshold, investors will be directed to Schwab branch consultants for lower-touch guidance or, if eligible, SWA.
This replaces the Schwab Advisor Network (SAN) pathway, which previously matched investors with vetted external fiduciaries.
That floor was $500,000 at the start of 2026, meaning the threshold will have climbed tenfold over roughly 12 months by the time the change takes effect.
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Tim Welsh, president of Nexus Strategy and former director of Business Consulting Services at Schwab Advisor Services, told American Banker the moves reveal how Schwab is defending its wealthiest client relationships without touching its long-standing pricing pitch to mass-affluent investors.
They’re not competing with RIAs on price, Welsh said. They’re narrowing what Schwab hands off to RIAs while pricing up what it keeps.
Welsh developed that argument at length in a white paper, making the case that the two-decade SAN referral arrangement supporting independent firms is being unwound at an accelerating pace.
The shift warrants attention from any advisor still relying on the pipeline to source new clients.
Schwab’s rising referral threshold signals a sharper push to retain wealthy clients, squeezing the pipeline independent advisors have relied on.Nitat Termmee / Getty Images
Schwab is pushing more retail households into paid advice
On Schwab’s second-quarter 2026 earnings call, CEO Rick Wurster said only 5% of retail households currently pay for fee-based advice, leaving substantial room for growth, The Motley Fool reported.
Internal polling indicates 31% are willing to pay, highlighting a gap Schwab plans to narrow through increased hiring, client outreach, and targeted engagement.
That expansion push matters for pricing because SWA clients generate three times the return on client assets compared with standard retail clients, RIABiz reported.
William Trout, practice director of Securities and Investments at Datos Insights, told American Banker the repricing carries its own risk, since the high-net-worth clients Schwab is targeting are also the ones with the deepest access to independent alternatives.
<strong>The strategic question is whether fee increases at the high end will accelerate the client attrition they’re designed to offset</strong>.
Managed investing inflows across the advisory platform climbed 50% year over year to $41 billion through the first half of 2026, according to Schwab’s Q2 2026 10-Q filing.
The growth gives Schwab room to raise fees in its highest-fee brackets without relying on the smaller accounts it aims to convert next.
What the repricing changes for investors weighing independent RIAs
The January 2027 repricing hits portfolios above $5 million the hardest, where Schwab’s new 0.45% marginal rate on the top tier now falls within the range many fee-only RIAs quote for comparable accounts.
With the referral floor rising to $5 million on the same date, Schwab will no longer direct those clients to outside firms, so the comparison falls to investors themselves.
The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) publishes a general framework for evaluating fiduciary advisors, which covers fee disclosure, scope of services, and fiduciary standards.
Investors above the new referral floor can use that framework to compare Schwab’s rates against independent fee-only RIAs before renewing.
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