Trouble At Schwab

By Daniel Kadlec

More than ever, investors of modest means who are looking for financial advice will have to go it alone. That's the lesson behind last week's sacking of CEO David Pottruck at discount brokerage Charles Schwab. Since taking the sole helm at Schwab 14 months ago, Pottruck has been unable to make the firm's middle-market strategy pay. And with onetime everyman firms like Dean Witter gone and Merrill Lynch refocused on the rich, it's not clear that anyone will step up with a full plate of services for ordinary folks.

"You're basically bisecting the market," says Matt Snowling, a brokerage analyst at investment firm Friedman Billings Ramsey. For folks with more than $150,000 to invest, firms like Merrill and Smith Barney offer comprehensive financial services. On the low end, bare-bones firms like ETrade and Ameritrade are happy with clients that do not expect advice and have only a few thousand dollars.

The tweeners are where Schwab has been operating--without much success. Despite acquisitions like U.S. Trust and Soundview Financial, which have broadened Schwab's product mix, the firm has been unable to persuade clients to pay more for research and advice. The firm's spotty record hasn't helped. Since May 2002, Schwab's lowest-rated stocks have outperformed its top-rated stocks. "They're trying to be too many things to too many people," says Lauren Smith, analyst at investment firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

With founder and eponym Charles Schwab replacing Pottruck, many expect the firm to focus on the discount brokerage business, which accounts for 70% of its pretax income. But Schwab could make a decisive assault on the full-service brokerage industry or even be put up for sale. What's clear from the firm's troubles--it lost 44,000 accounts in the second quarter, when profits fell 10%--is that the middle market is a tough racket. Don't look for anyone to rush into this void.

Where can you find help?

SMALL BROKERS Firms like Edward Jones, Raymond James and Legg Mason still serve the middle market. But you will pay full price and miss global research and IPOs.

ONLINE Good stock, mutual-fund and asset-allocation information is getting easier to find on websites like forbes.com morningstar.com fool.com and cbs.marketwatch.com

THE LIBRARY Value Line and Standard & Poor's reports have been delivering clear, unbiased company research for years.