Charles Schwab has brought back a former employee to take on a newly created role working with its largest and most complex independent advisory firms.
Julian Lopez, who worked for Schwab for over 20 years, is returning after a stint with LPL Financial to take the job of managing director of relationship management with Schwab Advisor Services.
“Julian rejoins the leadership team with a deep expertise and a strong track record of serving RIAs across a broad range of sizes and specialties,” a spokesperson said via email.
Lopez had risen through the ranks at Schwab to roles including business development and managing director of the relationship management team before departing to LPL in February 2023. According to an announcement from the time, his work at the broker/dealer was focused on “deepening relationships” with independent advisors.
Now, back with Schwab, he will take on the biggest RIA relationships for the country’s largest custodian.
“I think this is Schwab recognizing the need to continually up the level of service and support they are providing large RIAs,” said Frank LaRosa, CEO of Elite Consulting Partners. “As the landscape becomes more competitive for large RIAs, pricing continues to drop, and firms like Raymond James, LPL and Goldman Sachs continue to get more competitive in the custodian arena, Schwab will need to continue to find ways to deliver a better experience.”
Schwab is still the dominant player in RIA custodial services, reiterated by recent research from AdvizorPro. That data and insights firm found Schwab increased its relationships with RIAs through separately managed accounts by 9.6% year over year to 13,252 relationships.
But smaller, tech-focused custodians are also gaining ground. For example, Altruist grew by 111.7% to 1,179 relationships, and Interactive Brokers saw growth of 6.9% to 1,816 RIA relationships.
LaRosa said he has received feedback from some large RIAs that are disappointed with Schwab’s ability to provide “value-added” support. The new hire may help because it “shows the RIA community that they are being proactive in their efforts to continue attracting the best teams in the RIA space.”
LaRosa also said Lopez, whom he does not know, looks like a “great hire” not only because he has been with Schwab but also because he has had time at LPL.
“LPL continues to build the biggest and most competitive firm in the industry, and the custodian space is where I see they are being a force to be reckoned with next, so why not pull someone like Julian out of that environment?” he said. “He’ll bring unique ‘inside baseball’ on how LPL operates.”
Schwab works with more than 15,000 independent RIAs on custody and other wealth management solutions, and has more than 3,000 advisor services employees.