Schwab adds read-only Claude access and Ester planning tools for advisers

Schwab Advisor Services made Claude for Financial Advisors and Wealth.com’s Ester planning experience available through its advisor platform on 28 October, while announcing a strategic investment and partnership with Nevis. The expansion serves independent registered investment advisers using Schwab’s custody infrastructure, with different activation requirements and capabilities for each tool.[1]

The Claude collaboration was announced on 14 September. That earlier release described an authenticated route to Schwab Advisor Center information and workflows for research, meeting preparation and documentation.[4]

Claude retrieves information under the firm’s permissions

Schwab’s connector listing makes its authority explicit: access is read-only and follows the user-data permissions set by the advisory firm. It can retrieve positions, transactions, alerts and other account information. It is a connection for passing authorised data to an external assistant, rather than a brokerage execution tool or an AI model supplied by Schwab.[2]

A firm principal must approve activation. The listed tools include retrieving money-movement activity and standing authorisations, but retrieving those records does not grant authority to move the money. The distinction lets an advisor investigate a transaction’s status without giving this connection the power to initiate one.[2]

Ester has a staged commercial rollout

Wealth.com’s own instructions describe uploading trusts, wills and tax returns, asking questions about them and generating structured reviews or visual summaries. The system uses rules-based engines for core calculations and limits its subject matter to tax and estate planning. Advisors must review the output before using it; the service supplies planning support rather than tax or legal advice.[3]

The full Wealth.com platform, including document creation, scenario modelling and client collaboration, remains a separate paid product. A document uploaded into today’s Ester experience and a future permission to read a selected client’s Schwab data are different routes into the analysis.[3]

Nevis adds an investment relationship around operating work

Nevis separately identifies Schwab as a participant in its US$70 million Series B, led by EQT Ventures. The company says total funding has reached US$110 million. The round supports a platform combining client records, meeting information, planning and custodial workflows; the disclosed total is the financing round’s size, not Schwab’s individual cheque.[5]

Its existing workflow documentation explains the operational distinction. An account-opening process can pull information from a client-management system, populate custodian forms, obtain signatures and return account details to the client record. Workflows can contain conditions and approvals. For a process started from a client conversation, Nevis says a team member reviews and approves the proposed workflow before it acts.[6]

Schwab says onboarding is an early focus of the partnership and deeper Schwab-specific integrations are to be developed. That work is a separate implementation programme from the read-only custody connector and the planning service now available in Advisor Center.[1]

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