Talk to Rick, the Next CEO of Charles Schwab

Editor's note: This article was published October 5, 2024, by The Wall Street Journal. 

By Hannah Miao

When Rick Wurster arrived at McKinsey as a fresh-faced M.B.A. graduate, he was often quiet during meetings. In a crowded room, he preferred to chat with a colleague in the corner. A mentor noticed his shyness and gave him a suggestion: take an acting class.

He never quite caught the acting bug, but over time, he grew more confident speaking up. On Tuesday, some 20 years later, Wurster was named the next CEO of Charles Schwab.

Wurster will be tasked with steering Schwab through a transition. Troubles with its banking arm have led to stalling revenue and profits over the past couple of years.

Founded by Charles “Chuck” R. Schwab roughly 50 years ago, the company is no longer the underdog upstart for amateur investors known for catchy slogans such as “Talk to Chuck.” Schwab is the largest publicly traded U.S. brokerage managing more than $9 trillion across 43 million customer accounts. Growth is harder to come by at this size.

Wurster, 51 years old, has been primed for the top job since becoming president in 2021. Employees and analysts expect Wurster to largely continue the strategy set by longtime CEO Walt Bettinger, who will remain executive co-chairman of the board alongside Chuck Schwab. The company has laid out plans to adjust how it makes money on customers’ cash and to boost its more lucrative services including loans and financial advice.

“He’s open, clear, people like him and trust him and will follow his lead,” said Chuck Schwab.

Colleagues say Wurster is usually the first one in the office, often arriving around 5 a.m. He can be competitive about everything from Peloton to business results. A numbers guy, he peppers them with questions and wants to understand the minutiae of each part of the company. 

Some say he can come off as impersonal or overly scripted in larger arenas like town halls, but he connects better with people in smaller-group settings. Each year, he travels to more than 60 branches and service centers across the country to sit down with employees and hear customer feedback.

“I don’t think I was a natural born leader,” Wurster said. “I’ve had to be very thoughtful and intentional about it.”

Wurster grew up in Acton, Mass., near Boston, the second of four boys. His father worked in technology sales and his mother was a homemaker. They often spoke about investing for retirement.

He was captain of the golf team and studied economics at Villanova, graduating magna cum laude. He got his M.B.A. from Dartmouth, where he met his wife, Jill, which he said was “the best part of business school.”

At McKinsey, he led consulting projects for asset managers. Then he jumped to Wellington Management, expanding the firms’ asset-allocation team, and building and managing investment strategies and products.

“He was always the kind of person who you could trust to do business with on a handshake,” said Salim Ramji, CEO of Vanguard, who worked with Wurster at McKinsey.

Therapy for his second daughter, who was born with disabilities, brought Wurster and his family to the San Francisco Bay Area. The move also led him to Schwab.

In 2016, he was brought on to lead two money managers Schwab had acquired. Soon, he was heading up Schwab’s asset and wealth management arm. By 2021, his purview as president included everything from the brokerage’s individual-investor business, to services for financial advisers, to banking, to technology. He focused on streamlining the day-to-day experience for customers.

As Wurster rose through the ranks, Bettinger encouraged him to get to know Chuck Schwab. Having both played golf in college, Schwab asked Wurster to play a round.

Wurster hardly had time to golf anymore, but played exceptionally well that day. He remembers Schwab asking him, “Hey, do you ever work, or do you just come out and golf?”

“I said, ‘No, Chuck, trust me, this is an aberration,’” Wurster said. “I didn’t play as well the last 10 holes, which was probably good for my career.”

Under Bettinger, the company expanded its bank and cut fees. Schwab eliminated commissions on online stock trades in 2019, a move competitors swiftly followed, and acquired rival TD Ameritrade in 2020.

Then a rapid rise in interest rates pressured Schwab’s strategy for making money on clients’ idle cash, which makes up roughly half the company’s revenue. Customers shifted money from bank accounts to money-market funds with higher yields, while the longer-term bonds in Schwab’s investment portfolio declined in value.

Schwab’s stock dropped 17% last year and the company laid off about 2,000 employees. Shares are down 5.9% year to date. The S&P 500 is up about 50% since the end of 2022.

With the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates, Schwab expects the movement of client cash to stabilize. The company is looking to put more of its investment portfolio into shorter-term assets and potentially unload more of its deposits to third-party banks.

Wurster believes the company can continue to grow if it keeps existing customers happy, which should encourage them to bring more business to Schwab.

“The stock will go up and down, the noise around the business may go up and down, but what’s most important is building the long-term value for our clients,” Wurster said.

Now living in Texas, where Schwab is based, Wurster tries to make it home for dinner before picking work back up in the evening. Last year, he coached his son’s baseball, basketball and flag football teams. About 10 years ago, he drove his eldest daughter from the Bay Area to Los Angeles at 2 a.m. because she wanted to audition for MasterChef Junior.

When Neesha Hathi, Schwab’s head of wealth and advice solutions, started reporting to Wurster, an assistant scheduled their one-on-one meetings in the morning, when Hathi usually spent time with her sons before school. Wurster emailed the assistant to move the meetings so Hathi could continue her family routine.

“I didn’t even have to ask him,” Hathi said. “It’s just a lovely thing when someone knows what your values are.”