The wirehouses, to be sure, say they are embracing more simplicity and clarity on whether they are on track to meet their goals and be more open about fees and other charges. "The industry has not done a reliable job of telling people what their funding status is," Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management head John Thiel said at the Reuters Summit on Tuesday. "The biggest issue with trust, our clients tell us, is transparency."
However, they said Schwab is exaggerating its success in accumulating assets from wealthy clients to become what Clendening termed "truly the growth story in the industry."
From 2010 through the end of 2013 total client assets in all parts of Schwab grew by $827 billion, equal to the combined growth at Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, TD Ameritrade Holdings and E*Trade Financial Corp, he said.
A spokesman at Morgan Stanley said the comparison was inappropriate since Schwab included low-margin assets that it holds for independent investment advisors. A TD Ameritrade spokesman said its double-digit growth in net new client assets over the past five years "outpaces that of our competition."
Merrill's Thiel was diplomatic. “I would just say it’s a challenge to do that math, based on how people report,” he said.