Charles Schwab will pay more than $186m to settle a regulatory investigation that found it didn’t adequately disclose how keeping a big share of clients’ assets in cash could hurt investment returns.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said Schwab’s robo-adviser portfolios kept between 6% and 29.4% of assets in cash, instead of investing the money in stocks or other securities. The practice made money for Schwab’s affiliated bank, which lent out the cash, and the investment adviser made “false and misleading statements” in regulatory brochures about the conflict of interest, the SEC said in a settlement order.