Nevis Seeks Active AI Access at Schwab as Custodian Starts With Read-Only Tools

The key divide in the debate over AI tools for financial advisors is whether they can only analyze account information or can also change it. Nevis is pursuing the second model, aiming to let its agents open custody accounts and perform other operational tasks on Charles Schwab’s platform. Schwab has invested in Nevis’ $70 million Series B, but its own advisor-facing AI tools currently have read-only access.

That distinction shapes what each approach can do. A read-only system can help an advisor examine information and prepare work, while an agent with permission to act could carry out steps in an account or workflow. The latter may save more staff time, but it also puts greater weight on access controls, data handling and the process for checking an agent’s actions.

Schwab’s first step is restricted access

Schwab’s Claude for Financial Advisors tool, built with Anthropic, can analyze client information but cannot make changes to accounts. The firm has limited the tool to read-only access. Alison Dooher, head of AI for Schwab Advisor Services, said the firm also masks some data fields: account numbers are obscured, and Social Security numbers are not passed to the system.

“Today, we do not allow agents to act on any information at Schwab,” Dooher said. The boundary matters because an agent that can initiate account activity has a different role from one that drafts a response or summarizes client records. More permission can extend automation, but firms need to decide what actions are allowed and how those actions will be monitored.

Schwab CEO Rick Wurster has said the firm is blocking unauthorized AI agents that attempt to access investor accounts. At the Schwab IMPACT conference in Boston, executives described a staged path: begin with restricted access, gain experience, then consider giving agents the ability to write information or take account actions.

“Maybe next year we’ll be talking about bidirectional,” Jon Beatty, head of Schwab Advisor Services, told InvestmentNews. He said Schwab wants greater confidence and a suitable framework before expanding access. For advisors, that means the pace of automation will depend not only on what AI can do, but also on the custodian’s readiness to permit it.

Nevis is building toward operational work

Nevis co-founder and CEO Mark Swan said his company needs a strong relationship with Schwab to read information and act within its systems. Account opening is one example; he also described a broader opportunity to connect agents with the custodian’s operations. That ambition reflects a more expansive view of AI in advisory firms, where software could carry work through several steps rather than stop after producing an analysis.

Nevis says it has completed more than 100,000 operational tasks for advisors, including opening accounts and generating personalized financial plans and prospect proposals. Swan also said more than 10 customers have fully replaced their customer relationship management systems and use Nevis to automate back-office workflows. Those are company claims, and the source provides no breakdown of task types, error rates or the amount of staff time saved.

The startup says its assets grew from $50 billion to $700 billion in 2026. It is targeting access to the 17,000 registered investment advisors that custody with Schwab. Nevis also serves Focus Financial Partners, IEQ Capital and United Capital, which is owned by Creative Planning. Its client roster and reported task volume suggest adoption among some firms, while Schwab access could put the product in reach of a much larger advisor base.

Swan described a future in which advisors use many specialized agents for client work, including wealth and estate planning, tax preparation, account opening and moving money. He expects money movement between accounts by agents to become common within the next 12 months. That is a forecast from Nevis’ CEO, not a timetable Schwab has committed to.

Adoption remains early

Schwab survey data offers a measure of how far the market is from that vision: 7% of advisors said they use agentic AI, which the survey defined as systems that make decisions and take actions independently within workflows. The figure points to a gap between the capabilities vendors are pursuing and current advisor use.

For firms considering these tools, the practical questions extend beyond whether an agent can complete a task. They include which client data the system can see, which actions it can take, how a staff member reviews its work and what happens when the agent encounters an exception. A read-only system limits the consequences of mistakes, though it also leaves the human user to carry out any resulting account changes.

That trade-off helps explain why broader access may arrive in stages. Advisors could first use AI to gather information or prepare work, then gain permission for specific actions once firms and custodians have experience with the systems. Schwab executives have signaled openness to that progression, while emphasizing that expanded permissions depend on safeguards and confidence.

For now, Nevis is pressing for agents that can do more inside advisor workflows, while Schwab is setting a narrower boundary for its own AI access. The next meaningful test will be whether firms can show that agents handle operational tasks reliably enough for custodians to grant them permission to act.