Meta's Muse AI Ignites Wealth Management Selloff as Schwab Slides and Robinhood Rallies

Meta's launch of its consumer AI assistant, Muse, has reignited fears of technological disruption across the retail brokerage sector, driving a sharp divergence between traditional wealth managers and digital-native trading platforms. Shares of 55-year-old Charles Schwab fell 6% on Tuesday to their lowest level since early July, bringing their cumulative decline to more than 8% since Meta unveiled Muse, according to reporting by CNBC Business (https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/23/metas-muse-ai-causes-schwab-selloff.html).

The selloff extended broadly across legacy financial intermediaries. LPL Financial Holdings dropped 7% on Tuesday, Raymond James Financial shed 3.5%, and Interactive Brokers slipped 1%, while the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) fell 2%, leaving it down 6% from highs set earlier this month. The movement echoed a similar retreat in February, when fintech platform Altruist introduced its 'Hazel' tax-planning tool; Schwab shares subsequently regained some lost ground, while LPL did not.

While Meta's assistant states it will not execute trades or provide financial advice, queries regarding how it might perform advisory work show capabilities including tracking investments, assessing progress toward financial goals, and analyzing portfolio composition. Industry practitioners note that while tech giants do not operate as custodians, their tools threaten fee-taking intermediaries. Jimmy Lee, founder and chief executive of Las Vegas-based The Wealth Consulting Group, which manages $8 billion in assets, told CNBC Business that Schwab is working to protect market share against broad disruption facing intermediaries that charge fees for billing, reporting, and trading.

Traditional firms have responded by accelerating their own artificial intelligence deployments. Last week, Schwab Advisor Services announced a partnership with Anthropic to build Claude for Financial Advisors, following a May rollout of an internal AI system providing tailored analysis from Schwab's research arm. However, legacy revenue models face continued scrutiny; in an April note, Piper Sandler analyst Patrick Moley warned that AI and tokenization threaten the frictions that legacy intermediaries monetize, specifically noting Schwab's reliance on low-yielding sweep cash.

In contrast, Robinhood notched a fresh year-to-date high on Tuesday, extending its gain to 10% on the year following a drop of more than 40% during the first quarter. Robinhood, which in May launched autonomous AI agents capable of trading and managing portfolios for users, has gained 1,200% over the past three years, compared with an 83% gain for Schwab and a 65% rise for the XLF ETF over the same period. Representatives for Schwab did not respond to requests for comment, while Robinhood representatives declined to comment.

Derivatives activity on Tuesday highlighted the split in market sentiment. Cboe LiveVol data showed options volume in Schwab exceeded five times its daily average, with put buying doubling call volume and concentrated in mid-January 90-strike puts, offset partly by a sale of October 16 95-strike puts. In Robinhood options, call contracts outpaced puts two to one, capturing more than 80% of $95 million in total premium traded.