Schwab CEO credits Fidelity retreat for record RIA inflows

RIABiz reports that Schwab CEO Rick Wurster tied the firm's Q2 RIA custody growth to Fidelity Investments' decision to back away from long/short products. Schwab logged $80.2 billion in net-new RIA assets for the quarter ended June 30, up from $42.4 billion a year earlier — an 89% year-over-year increase. The article's headline also cites 99% growth, but the dollar figures support 89%.

“Our bigger competitors were maybe not making [long/short] as available, which probably led to a little bit of a surge,” Wurster said in Schwab's July 21 business update. He credited Schwab's ability to support RIAs on long/short products for the acceleration.

Greg O'Gara, senior advisor at Datos Insights, said Fidelity's retreat “gave Schwab a real assist,” adding that Schwab's in-house bank gives it more room to run. Wurster also described a halo effect: winning the long/short business often also wins the whole household's relationship.

The quarter suggests product availability can move custody share as decisively as price or service. According to Wurster and O'Gara, Fidelity's March move to raise long/short financing costs by 153% opened the door for Schwab, and Schwab converted it into record flows. RIAs should watch how custodian product choices shape their own clients' flows.

The $80.2 billion haul nearly doubled Schwab's 2021–2025 average Q2 net-new RIA inflows of $40.3 billion, according to RIABiz, underscoring the scale of the long/short effect.

The halo point is the under-appreciated detail. Wurter is saying long/short wins aren't one-off; they open the whole household relationship. That turns a product-specific win into a sticky, multi-asset custody relationship. For competing custodians, the lesson is uncomfortable: product gaps don't just cost you one mandate — they can cost you the entire family.

This is a single-source story from RIABiz, and it is driven by Wurster's own characterization. The 89% jump is undisputed from the dollar figures, but the causal link to Fidelity's pricing is Wurster's interpretation, echoed by O'Gara. Expect Fidelity to respond, either with pricing changes or product expansion, to reclaim that demand.

Watch Fidelity's next move on long/short financing and whether Schwab can sustain Q2's flow pace in Q3. Also monitor if other custodians adjust product availability to compete.