Schwab boosts clients' required assets to be part of referral program advisors covet

The Charles Schwab Corp. continues to tinker with its highly regarded referral program for advisors, this time upping the minimums in required assets per client to $2 million from $500,000 and effectively shrinking the pool of clients for advisors to work with.

Called Schwab Advisor Network, the referral program for registered investment advisors who custody clients assets with Schwab has existed for more than two decades. The new client asset minimum goes into effect next year.

Schwab has been evaluating its referral program for RIAs for over a year. Referrals of potential new clients are highly valuable and the lifeblood of an RIA or broker-dealer.

“A move to a $2 million account minimum seems sensible when you consider a retail client with $500,000 who invested passively in the S&P 500 two decades ago has seen an increase of more than five to six times,” said Brian Hamburger, an industry attorney.

After almost two decades of no change in pricing, as well as incredible growth in the financial advice industry, RIAs that get valuable referrals Schwab were told earlier this year that they will pay more for that client information.

The Schwab Advisor Network had not altered its fees in almost 20 years. In 2025, getting referrals from Schwab became more expensive for RIAs in the program.

RIAs who are clients of Schwab and custody assets with the giant discount brokerage earlier this year faced an increase of 5% to participate in the referral program.

That meant Schwab is now charging a shade more than 26 basis points on the first $2 million in client assets. The fee is significant; an industry rule of thumb is for advisors to charge roughly 1 percent – 100 basis points – on client assets.

“The Schwab Advisor Network, SAN, has been running since 2002, continues to experience healthy growth in assets, and is an important component of how we serve investors,” a Schwab spokesperson wrote in an email to InvestmentNews. “As we always have, we will continue to evolve and enhance the program to ensure it's positioned to meet the increasing wealth and advice needs of our clients.”

“This new minimum, effective January 2026, will better align client referrals with the asset levels and specialized needs that are served through the SAN program,” the spokesperson added.

Industry news website CityWire on Thursday reported the latest change in Schwab’s referral program.

It’s not clear how much annual revenue Schwab generates from its Schwab Advisor Network referral program.

But the program is undoubtedly significant for some RIAs. Peter Mallouk’s firm, Creative Planning, with $325 billion in client assets, receives client referrals from Schwab through the program, according to its Form ADV. Creative Planning also uses other client referral programs.

RIAs that use Schwab as a custodian get the referrals from Schwab’s network of retail branch offices. The fee to advisors is not a one-time transaction but rather charged in perpetuity.

About 140 RIAs use the Schwab referral program.