By Barron's Advisor Staff

Schwab's first-quarter bottom line beat Wall Street's estimates. Revenue hit a record. Investor activity boosted assets, trading volumes, and new account openings. Yet investors dumped Schwab stock on Thursday following the earnings release, and shares finished the session down a painful 7.6%. So what happened? Investors might have worried about the slight miss on that revenue number. And some might have fretted about how artificial intelligence could affect Schwab's cash-sweep accounts, an important source of revenue for the company, in the wake of recent comments by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.

In other most-read wealth management articles this week:

How to invest in fixed income now. The bond market has been anything but placid lately, as shifting expectations for interest rates have led to price volatility for most types of bonds. For this week's Barron's Advisor Big Q, we decided to check in with veteran investment advisors for their fixed-income recommendations, both for capital preservation/income, and for growth and total return. Recommendations for income included Treasuries in the two- to five-year range and investment-grade bonds from three to seven years. For growth, suggestions included interval funds and distressed credit.

   Wells Fargo's FiNet scores another recruiting win.   Wells Fargo's independent broker-dealer unit said it recruited a former UBS financial advisor team that oversaw more than $2.1 billion in client assets. It is the fourth advisor team with more than $1 billion in assets to affiliate with Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, or FiNet, in 2026. 

Advisors' important role in spotting addiction. Financial advisors sometimes find themselves in an optimal position to flag one of the most destructive forces in families' lives: substance abuse and addiction. Advisors often have close relationships with clients, which can help them spot problems, but they also have a privileged view into clients' finances and spending behavior, which can provide clues that things aren't right.

LPL Financial and Mariner strike a deal. Mariner, which has multiple pieces to its wealth management empire, has decided to sell the $31 billion-asset Mariner Advisor Network to LPL Financial. The 350 advisors in that group were already affiliated with LPL. Through the transaction, LPL affiliate Private Advisor Group will acquire 144 advisors. The deal affects just a small portion of Mariner's advisory operation. The Overland Park, Kan.-based firm reported assets under advisement of $577 billion at the end of 2025.

Breakaway dynamics are shifting. When advisors at large national brokerages first began peeling away to launch their own practices, an important motivation was reclaiming control of client relationships and the business itself, writes guest columnist Shirl Penney, the CEO of Dynasty Financial Partners. But the dynamics of so-called breakaway advisors are changing as a new generation of large teams is thinking of enterprise value, governance structures, and capital strategy from the start.

Write to advisor.editors@barrons.com

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April 17, 2026 15:25 ET (19:25 GMT)

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