By Barron's Advisor Staff
On Charles Schwab's earnings call last week, CEO Rick Wurster talked at length about how artificial intelligence can improve efficiency and boost growth. Investors, however, were more focused on AI's potential to disrupt Schwab's reliance on low-yielding sweep cash for a significant chunk of its revenue. It was another bout of worries about the impact of artificial intelligence that is weighing on shares of Schwab and other wealth management companies.
Among other most-read wealth management articles:
17 years of alleged scheming . A former broker and investment advisor is facing civil and criminal charges over an alleged long-running scheme to defraud clients. Last Thursday, the Justice Department announced that it had charged Jeffrey Higgins, 54, of Baker City, Ore., with investment advisor fraud in connection with the alleged misconduct. The department is accusing Higgins of siphoning money from his clients over nearly two decades.
There's one reasonable alternative to bonds . A variety of income-generating investments are growing in popularity as advisors worry about the safety of bonds. The logic is that the growing debt and deficit will cause interest rates to surge. (Bond prices fall when rates rise.) Some financial pros recommend using low-volatility dividend stocks and annuities as alternatives to bonds, but both have shortcomings. There's another option that our columnist, financial advisor Allan Roth, prefers, even as he argues bonds have their place in portfolios.
The case for annuities . In the recent Barron's Advisor article " How to Make Sure You Have Enough to Retire, No Matter What," a number of financial advisors provided advice on how to work with clients to prepare them for retirement. However, none talked about income-generating annuities. David Lau, founder and CEO of DPL Financial Partners, writes that those annuities are the one solution that ensures a client will have a stream of guaranteed income that will last their lifetime. He adds that advisors make a mistake by ignoring them.
Baird recruits big advisor team . Wealth management firm Baird has recruited an Indiana investment advisory team from Goelzer Investment Management, where they managed about $1 billion. The HWB Partners group joined Baird's Indianapolis office, where it will continue to serve institutions and ultrahigh-net-worth clients.
Stifel is ready to settle big legal bill . Stifel Financial agreed to a settlement with a group of clients who won a $132.5 million arbitration award against the brokerage firm, according to an April 17 filing by the clients' lawyers. If the settlement is completed, it would end a multiyear legal battle between Stifel and the clients of former star broker Chuck Roberts. The company had been trying for a year to vacate the large arbitration award.
Write to advisor.editors@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 24, 2026 15:46 ET (19:46 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments