The RIA industry is just getting started.

I've spent 29 years at Schwab working alongside independent advisors. And I can tell you with confidence: the best is still ahead.

The RIA model keeps proving itself—not because of any single data point, but because of what it represents. Advisors who chose independence did so because they believed they could serve clients better on their own terms.

Seems they were right.

Studies show:

• The RIA channel has seen a 13% Compound Annual Growth Rate over the last six years.¹
• Cerulli expects RIA assets to exceed wirehouse assets by 2029.²
• Nearly 70% of advisors now prefer an independent model.³

These aren't blips. They reflect a structural shift in how Americans are choosing to receive financial advice, and a profound validation of what independent advisors have been building for decades.

More and more RIAs are choosing Schwab every year, and we don't take that lightly. It tells us that what we're building alongside them is working.

When advisors grow, we grow. When their firms and their clients are well-served, we're doing our job. That's the relationship we're committed to, and it's the one that drives every investment we make in our platform.

There is $38 trillion⁴ in managed wealth that sits outside Schwab and the RIA model today. That number is almost too big to wrap your head around. But what it tells us is that the independent model, for all its remarkable growth, is still in the early chapters of its story. The advisors who are winning today are doing so because they've built something differentiated—a complete, connected experience that clients love and can't find elsewhere. And the firms that can deliver that experience are going to keep winning.

That's why we're investing the way we are. Not just in custody—that's the price of entry.

We're investing in wealth services that help advisors serve increasingly complex clients: banking solutions that keep assets and relationships with the advisor, investment capabilities that deliver institutional scale without sacrificing personalization, and trading capabilities that give advisors the execution quality their most sophisticated clients expect.

Advisors are using more of our platform than ever before and asking for more—we're focused on delivering.

And then there's AI, which is no longer a future story—it's a now story.

We're deploying it internally to enable our 3,000+ service professionals to perform faster and more effectively. We're building it outward to give advisors actionable intelligence from their everyday interactions with us. And we're doing it through an open ecosystem that lets RIAs and their technology partners innovate where it makes sense for them—including through our AI in Action program, which is helping firms move from exploration to implementation at their own pace.

We're not chasing trends. We're applying AI where it creates durable value—with fiduciary standards and data security as non-negotiables.

I'm often asked what I think the next chapter of the RIA industry looks like. My answer is always the same and it's simple: more of what's already working at a greater scale.

• More advisors choosing independence. More clients experiencing the benefits of fiduciary advice.
• More firms building businesses that are truly differentiated—businesses that reflect who they are and what they believe.
• And more technology helping advisors do what they do best, faster and more effectively than ever before.

The independent advisors we work with inspire me every day. Many of them left the comfort of large institutions because they believed in something—in a model built around the client, not around the firm. That conviction is what drives this industry forward. And it's what drives us to keep building a platform worthy of their trust.

We get to be part of this story every single day. And after 29 years, I'm more energized than ever about what's ahead, for our clients, for the profession, and for the investors they serve.

The runway is extraordinary. We're just getting started.