Charles Schwab Assets Under Management (AUM)
Charles Schwab is one of the largest broker-dealers in the United States. The company has over
1,200 financial advisors, operates more than 330 brick-and-mortar locations in 46 states, and
serves over 7,000 registered investment advisors. The company also manages its own FDIC-insured
bank with over a million accounts.
The investment division of the financial behemoth has very deep pockets and a large customer base. Specifically, the brokerage house has the following numbers:
| Charles Schwab total client assets |
$7.13 trillion |
| Charles Schwab number of customers |
32.9 million (includes international users) |
Client assets represent the total amount of cash, securities, and other financial vehicles on deposit with Charles
Schwab. This figure includes both managed and non-managed funds.
Charles Schwab and Competitors
Charles Schwab Number of Customers
The broker-dealer has 32.9 million securities accounts.
The total number of accounts is up significantly year over year.
The company’s banking division makes up only a small fraction of client assets. The bulk comes from brokerage
accounts, and a large chunk of these are retirement accounts. The firm provides Individual Retirement Accounts
and employer-sponsored plans.
The broker also has a large market share of the registered investment advisor marketplace. The
company provides various financial services for independent financial advisors. The 7,000
investment advisors Schwab works with manage $2 trillion. Schwab’s investment advisory service
employs 1,800 workers to handle trading, operations, and custody issues.
Besides its US operations, Schwab also has offices in England, Hong Kong, and Puerto Rico. This is
a smaller global presence than other brokers, such as Merrill Lynch, have.
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Overview of Charles Schwab
Schwab (member of SIPC) is a leading brokerage firm, offering not just self-directed accounts
but also managed portfolios, bank products, and a host of other financial services. Not surprisingly, it has trillions of dollars in client
assets. In this review of Charles Schwab we're going to rate it in important categories, and you can compare these ratings to what other brokers have received and see where
the firm excels and where it fails.
ETFs
Schwab's website has a section entitled ‘Exchange Traded Products.' It has an enormous amount of information about ETFs, ETN's, and closed-end
funds. There is a convenient keyword search tool that can look for funds based on an entered word or words. For example, we typed in the word
'gold' and the website returned two ETFs; surprisingly GLD was not one of them, though.
Articles on ETF issues written by Schwab financial advisors are linked in the ETF section. Funds are sorted by investment philosophy, such as large growth or Japan stock. A search tool is available for socially-conscious funds. Furthermore, a comparison tool looks at funds side-by-side, showing such data as net expense ratio and volatility.
Schwab offers 251 ETFs that can be traded without paying any commissions. This is one of the largest lists in the discount brokerage industry
but it is smaller than at Firstrade that offers 700 (!)
and TD Ameritrade that provides 550+ commission-free ETFs.
Mutual Funds
As with ETFs, Schwab hits a home run in the mutual fund category. There are many helpful resources for self-directed investors on the broker's mutual fund page. If you know a fund symbol, you can enter it in a search box and view Schwab's report card on it. This handy document shows the fund's Morningstar rating along with many other important highlights, such as growth of a $10,000 investment.
Schwab's mutual fund screener can search by lots of criteria. It displays a total of 5,808 mutual funds that can be purchased by new investors.
This is a somewhat small list, compared to some other firms. (Read
Best mutual fund brokers.) However, Schwab makes
up for it by offering 3,485 without loads or transaction fees. This selection is larger than what many other brokers offer.
One really nice feature that we liked was the company's OneSource Select List. This is an assortment of no-load, no-transaction-fee funds that
are chosen by Schwab's in-house investment professionals and are expected to outperform rival funds. Some of them are Schwab funds, but many of
them are not. All of the funds we looked at had expense ratios below 1.0%.
Customer Support
Schwab continues its above-average performance by offering customer service day and night, weekday and weekend. On top of its phone service, the
website also provides round-the-clock chat service. Unfortunately, an agent wasn't able to answer a question about options trading in a recent
test chat we initiated; and this will subtract half a star.
Besides English, Schwab offers service in several other languages. These include Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Vietnamese. TeleBroker is an automated system that is able to accept orders over the phone.
If you're an old school investor, don't worry, because Schwab hasn't forgotten about you. The brokerage firm has almost 400 brick-and-mortar
locations that provide traditional in-person service during the weekday. With the recent loss of Scottrade, this is now the second largest
network among online discount brokers (only TD Ameritrade has more). Besides its U.S. locations, Schwab has an office in San Juan, Puerto Rico
and the United Kingdom.
Schwab's website has a very useful self-service section where you can perform all sorts of account management functions. These include adjusting alert settings, signing up for paperless statements, opening an account, downloading forms, or submitting a travel notice.
Updated on 9/26/2022.
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.
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