Ex-Schwab advisor sues over age, sex discrimination

An ex-Charles Schwab advisor is suing her former employer over alleged age and sex discrimination and accusing a Schwab branch manager of “a pattern of treating younger male employees more favorably than older females.”

Lynette Ancona, now an advisor at Raymond James, sued Charles Schwab on Tuesday in federal court in Orlando, Florida, over what she called her constructive termination — meaning her conditions of employment had become so bad she was essentially forced to quit. Ancona left Schwab in 2023 after 14 years at the firm, where she had managed $750 million. She started Ancona Wealth Management of Raymond James in Winter Park, Florida, the following year. 

Ancona states in her suit that her primary reason for leaving was her treatment under her branch manager, Olivier Guerin, who now has responsibilities related to offices in Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, according to Schwab’s website.

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According to the suit, Ancona was a “top performer” at the various Schwab branches she worked at during her career. She would routinely work 10 to 12 hours a day and once was awarded with Schwab’s Platinum Club Award, which goes to the six best producers in the firm.

Yet, under Guerin, Ancona was “routinely belittled and insulted,” according to their suit. Her male colleagues did not suffer the same alleged abuses, the suit says.

Wealth managers no strangers to discrimination suits

Lawsuits alleging discrimination based on characteristics like age, sex and race remain common in the wealth management industry, which has long worked to shed its stereotypical association with hard-charging “alpha male” types. In November, a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel imposed a $9.7 million penalty on RBC Wealth Management after finding it had discriminated against a former advisor “because of her age and sex” and terminated her employment because she was about to retire.

In February, Morgan Stanley was sued by a former field manager, a Black woman named Berdina Moore-Bonds, who contended she had been fired following discrimination over age, sex and race. And Merrill was taken to court in November by a pair of advisors, also Black women, who argued they had been systematically excluded from some of the firm’s most-productive teams. The suit against Merrill was later settled.

Suit alleges favoritism toward the ‘young and hungry’

Ancona, in her suit, accuses her former branch manager Guerin of making it a point to advance the careers of men in the office. He once, according to the suit, asserted that they were “young and hungry.” 

Ancona said she was eventually driven to complain to the firm’s human resources department. Her suit alleges that Guerin was quick to retaliate. In October 2024, according to the suit, he filed a coaching memorandum that Ancona says was filled with inaccuracies about her performance.

Ancona said she was never allowed to correct the misinformation. In December of that same year, she lost a $60,000 commission after Guerin reversed it “to appease a younger male colleague,” according to the suit.

Ancona told senior officials at the firm that she thought she was being discriminated against because of her age and sex. Her suit says Guerin responded by criticizing her even more and isolating her from her colleagues. She said she left the firm in December 2023.

“Ancona learned from one former client that Guerin informed her clients that Ancona could not handle all of her clients adequately and that she did not provide quality advice by stating that the advice came from Defendant and not her,” according to the suit. “These disparaging statements constitute further retaliatory conduct by Guerin.”

Schwab’s zero-tolerance policy toward discrimination

Guerin did not return a phone call seeking comment. A spokesperson for Charles Schwab said, “We want our employees to thrive at Schwab and we have a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of discrimination. We dispute these allegations and we will respond in court.”

Lawyers representing Ancona did not return requests for comment. Nor did Raymond James.

According to BrokerCheck, Ancona began her career at UBS in 2001, moved to Bank of America in 2006 and then Charles Schwab in 2009. Guerin has been at Schwab since 1997.

Ancona’s suit accuses Schwab of sex and age discrimination and retaliation. It says that Ancona filed a charge of discrimination to the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after leaving Schwab. The commission issued no opinion on the merits of her case, clearing the way for her to sue.