Northwestern Mutual vs. Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard
Highlights:
• You can get financial planning and investment accounts at Vanguard, Schwab, Northwestern Mutual, and Fidelity.
• Only Fidelity and Schwab have high-powered trading platforms.
• Self-directed accounts are available at Vanguard, Schwab, and Fidelity.
A lot of financial support can be found at Vanguard, Schwab, Fidelity, and Northwestern Mutual. Below is a review of these four major investment companies.
Investment Services
At all four firms in this overview, it's possible to trade these types of financial products:
- Stocks
- Bonds and other fixed-income securities
- Option contracts
- Funds (mutual, closed-end, and exchange-traded)
Except for Vanguard, each company offers annuities. Fidelity is the only one here with cryptocurrencies. Schwab alone has futures and forex. Schwab and Fidelity both allow foreign equity trading. Northwestern Mutual offers alternative assets like private equity and hedge funds. Not all assets are available in all accounts.
Every firm here offers self-directed and managed plans. These can be opened under different tax-advantaged structures, such as education and retirement accounts.
Wealth management, which is the most thorough kind of asset management, can be found at all four. Vanguard is the only one with no branch offices. Northwestern Mutual is the only company without robo services.
Winner: Close call between Fidelity and Schwab
Cash Management
Brokerage clients at all four have access to different banking features. Northwestern Mutual gives checkwriting on both taxable and retirement accounts. It also runs an FDIC-sweep program that transfers any uninvested cash in its investment accounts to partner banks. Those balances earn 2.18% APY. Example banks in the program include Citibank, Capital One, and HSBC Bank. Northwestern Mutual may charge for this service, so review your statements.
Vanguard and Fidelity also have FDIC sweeps with no fees. Vanguard’s cash account earns 3.5% APY but doesn’t come with a debit card or checks. Fidelity’s cash account sits at 2.09% APY but includes a Visa debit card with worldwide ATM-fee refunds.
Schwab doesn’t use an FDIC sweep because it has its own bank. Schwab Bank carries FDIC protection plus a solid range of bank products, including a savings account with a debit card that mirrors Fidelity’s ATM benefit. A Schwab brokerage account can also use various money market funds with competitive yields.
Winner: Charles Schwab
Websites
Websites are the first step in the software contest. The Vanguard and Northwestern Mutual sites are fairly straightforward and don’t have a lot of high-level tools.
Vanguard does offer sizable charts (though not full-screen) with some useful features; we saw just seven technical indicators. Its trade ticket links to educational articles on placing trades, which newcomers will find helpful.
Fidelity’s user-friendly web-based ticket (there’s more than one version) includes a link to videos showing how to place trades. Its charts are higher-level with over a hundred indicators (plus many other features) and can go full screen.
Moving on to Schwab, we get a specialized web platform (besides the main site). Called thinkorswim, it has advanced charting, a professional-grade order window, and simulated trading. The normal site has many more tools, including a basket order feature named Investing Themes. This feature lets you order up to 30 stocks at once in fractional shares.
Winner: Schwab
Desktop Programs
Vanguard and Northwestern Mutual focus on long-term investing, so neither provides a desktop platform. Schwab and Fidelity do.
Schwab continues with the thinkorswim platform, which is very advanced. During our demo, we liked these features:
- Right-click trading
- Forex and futures trade boxes
- Option and stock scanners
- Multiple pro-level order formats
- Various trade tickets
- Paper trading
Fidelity customers can use Active Trader Pro, which has many of the same capabilities as thinkorswim, although some things are missing. For instance, ATP doesn’t have a simulator or backtesting. Even so, we enjoyed Fidelity’s platform more for options trading (you’ll find robust options tools under the Options tab).
Winner: Schwab
Mobile Apps
Each of these four investment firms has a mobile app. Northwestern Mutual’s is the only one that doesn’t allow actual trading. Instead, it focuses on account management by displaying balances and positions.
The Vanguard app adds a real trade ticket with four order types (market, limit, stop, stop limit). It restricts mutual fund orders to Vanguard’s own family, though, and shows only basic charts. You can’t trade options on it.
Fidelity fixes that shortfall with option chains for not just calls and puts but also multi-leg strategies like iron condors and butterflies. Fidelity also provides better charts compared to Vanguard.
Schwab tops Fidelity by offering advanced charting through thinkorswim’s app. We found more than 400 technical indicators, a large number. Schwab also has a standard app with a wide selection of tools, including live video news, option chains, and a mutual-fund trade ticket.
Winner: Schwab
Margin
All four broker-dealers in this comparison can set up a margin-capable brokerage account. They each use a sliding scale for interest:
| Firm | Margin Rates |
|---|
| Northwestern Mutual | 8.5% to 6.5% |
| Schwab | 12.325% to 10.575% |
| Fidelity | 12.325% to 10.575% |
| Vanguard | 12.25% to 10.25% |
Schwab’s website shows a ticker’s maintenance margin, while Fidelity’s site has a margin calculator that reveals information on a possible trade, such as house call, same-day buying power, and margin equity.
Winner: Northwestern Mutual
Find a Financial Advisor
If you are looking for a professional money management service in your area, you can
find a Financial Advisor on the Wiser Advisor
(or read
Wiser Advisor review).
Visit Wiser Advisor
Our Recommendations
Mutual-Fund Trading: Schwab and Fidelity feature excellent resources on their websites for mutual funds. Along with screeners, both companies have curated fund picks, fund scores, a fund comparison tool, and more.
Small Accounts: Fidelity doesn’t require a minimum deposit for an advisory account. Brokerage accounts at Schwab, Fidelity, or Vanguard also have no minimums.
Frequent Equity Trading: Charles Schwab
is a great pick with its powerful desktop software (plus overseas stocks, margin, and fractional shares).
Beginners: A managed account at any participant in this comparison is a good way to start.
Long-Term Investors & Retirement Savers: Schwab and Fidelity have the top tools for self-directed
accounts. If you need a managed account, Schwab, Fidelity, or Northwestern Mutual would be wise picks. We exclude Vanguard because it lacks branch offices.
Decision
Vanguard’s limited software makes it trail the others. And Northwestern Mutual can’t really compete on discounted trading. Charles Schwab is tough to beat.
Charles Schwab Website
Visit Schwab Website
Updated on 7/18/2025.
Chad Morris is a financial writer with more than 20 years experience
as both an English teacher and an avid trader. When he isn’t writing
expert content for Brokerage-Review.com, Chad can usually be found
managing his portfolio or building a new home computer.
|