The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

4. Charles in Charge

Charles Schwab's (SCHW Quote) dream of fabulous wealth management faded this week.

The San Francisco-based online broker agreed Monday to sell its U.S. Trust unit to Bank of America (BAC Quote). The $3.3 billion deal comes just six years after Schwab bought U.S. Trust with a pledge to launch "a new model for serving the affluent investor."

But the combination never got off the ground, mostly because Schwab's do-it-yourself users didn't want to pay hefty fees. Former Schwab co-CEO David Pottruck, who pushed the deal because he was a U.S. Trust customer, was eased out in 2004.

Now Schwab is promising that trust-fund types "will find even greater opportunity" with new owner Bank of America. And in a strange echo of the original merger's hype, one well-placed U.S. Trust client says he couldn't be more pleased.

"I can't imagine a better match for U.S. Trust than with Bank of America," Schwab's current chief executive, Charles Schwab, said Monday. "As a U.S. Trust client myself, with no intention to leave, I'm confident this will be a real win for clients."

Now that's rich.

Dumb-o-Meter score: 82. "People with a lot of money are going to die," Schwab Institutional operating chief Charles Goldman told Investment News in September. "That's the key."