John O’Connell Featured in RIABiz: Schwab’s new $5-per-RIA-client trading fees set to activate Tuesday
John O’Connell was featured in this RIABiz article discussing Schwab’s new $5-per-RIA-client trading fees that started on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026. John argues that AUM fees don’t fully reflect the costs tied to different investment strategies. He notes that while smaller, passive RIAs are mostly unaffected by Schwab’s new $5 per-account block trading fee due to low trading volumes, more active strategies—like rebalancing, tax-loss harvesting, or direct indexing—incur much higher trading activity and related costs. O’Connell says the new fee doesn’t undermine the AUM model, but it pushes firms toward clearer differentiation between low-turnover allocation models and higher-touch, higher-activity investment strategies.
