Schwab Wealth Services anyone??

[DawgMan]

I have been a long time DIY Schwab guy and was recently contacted by assigned "Schwab Wealth Consultant" from the "Schwab Wealth Services Team". Per my conversation with my consultant, he stated this was a new program at Schwab whereby they offer a swat team of specialists (i.e. Financial Planning, Tax Specialists, Wealth/Estate Planning Specialists). He stated this was a "free" service targeting higher level account holders. I did some google searches and could not find any propaganda on Schwab's site, but my guy's comment was the program was so new the marketing materials are not online yet. I googled the individuals and they all seem to be legit. Additionally, he seemed to know all my account balances. I am moving forward with a follow up call to listen thinking there eventually will be a pitch for services, but perhaps this is Schwab's way of going on offense to try an keep higher balance clients from being picked off by the competitors?

Have any of you Schwab account holders been contacted by these folks?

 

[RetireeRobert]

No. At least not yet. But now you have me curious.

 

[whatnot]

Following this topic.
Maybe it’s free during the rollout phase and you were lucky to be in this initiation rollout.
It does sound interesting!

 

[mrfeh]

He stated this was a "free" service targeting higher level account holders...
eventually will be a pitch for services

Sounds like you have a handle on things.

They wouldn't be doing it if it didn't make them money.

 

[Another Reader]

Like the OP, I searched and only found wealth management, a fee based service. Will be interested in what you find.

About a year ago I was contacted by one of the local Fidelity offices to make an appointment to review my investments. Clearly someone was targeting higher value unmanaged accounts. It's the office I have had problems with in the past so I declined. Nothing from the smaller office a few miles away that has provided much better service. No hungry sales people there, maybe because the demographic is a little higher end and they don't feel the need to upsell.

 

[DawgMan]

My next meeting is this coming Wed with a "Sr Financial Planner" who is going to give me a Personal Financial Plan created by Money Guide Pro... a $1500 cost that is free for Wealth Service clients!! Again, somewhat skeptical as to where this may go before the big pitch shows up, but I will play along for now and report back to the group. I remember a few years ago trying Personal Capital and doing a couple of calls with their investment guys. In that case, it was clear they were making a pitch. Here, they have been upfront they are supposedly not making a pitch. The way I look at it, it never hurts to take a listen and get another set of "professional" eyes in reviewing my portfolio.

 

[Exit 2024]

We have 3 accounts between 2 of us at Schwab, total is around $275k, I guess we are not candidates to become Wealth Service clients, would be interesting to know what is a threshold for such free services

 

[mrfeh]

We have 3 accounts between 2 of us at Schwab, total is around $275k, I guess we are not candidates to become Wealth Service clients, would be interesting to know what is a threshold for such free services

Don't know about Schwab, but rumor has it that Fidelity's cutoff is 7 figures.

 

[target2019]

My next meeting is this coming Wed with a "Sr Financial Planner" who is going to give me a Personal Financial Plan created by Money Guide Pro... a $1500 cost that is free for Wealth Service clients!! Again, somewhat skeptical as to where this may go before the big pitch shows up, but I will play along for now and report back to the group. I remember a few years ago trying Personal Capital and doing a couple of calls with their investment guys. In that case, it was clear they were making a pitch. Here, they have been upfront they are supposedly not making a pitch. The way I look at it, it never hurts to take a listen and get another set of "professional" eyes in reviewing my portfolio.

Looking forward to hear your opinion after Wednesday. It would be great if a company offers something extra useful to an existing client. But I believe you'll hear about a fee for enhanced services, or something like that.

 

[ducky911]

following and skeptical

Long time schwab diy guy here. Please post update

Thanks

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Sounds like you have a handle on things.

They wouldn't be doing it if it didn't make them money.

Yes, but the "how" also matters. If they're pushing Schwab funds with higher expense ratios, that's worse than them simply having data that customer retention is much higher when customers can get fiduciary advice and research done for no additional cost. Or, a more middle ground, maybe they find their annuity sales are higher among clients with this service, so they offer it for free to everyone and it pays for itself because of those who fall for it.

 

[target2019]

For reference:
Schwab S&P 500 Index Fund (SWPPX) Net Expense Ratio 0.020%
Vanguard 500 Index Fund Admiral Shares (VFIAX) Expense ratio 0.04%

Of course there are many more funds to compare...

 

[OldShooter]

We have 3 accounts between 2 of us at Schwab, total is around $275k, I guess we are not candidates to become Wealth Service clients, would be interesting to know what is a threshold for such free services

Thresholds and names of Schwab programs have moved around over the years. Latest, per my Schwab guy when I asked him a few months ago, is $1M assets held at Schwab for "Pinnacle" level and $10M for the next step with clients "handled out of New York." We are Pinnacle; I don't remember what the top level is called. For us, Pinnacle doesn't amount to much. We have a rep assigned and he does an excellent job at administriva and any research we ask for. We're also told that our support calls are routed to a higher-capability phone center. Hard to tell about that, but we always get good service and minimal wait times.

Our guy knows we're DIY, so I doubt if he'd refer us to anything like the OP describes. Anyway, we have never heard of it.

Interestingly, I added a HELOC at USBank as a cash cushion while we are building a new second home. After seeing our balance sheet, they moved our checking account (our only relationship with them) into their "Private Wealth Management" program, which garnered one prospecting call from a woman who knew very little about investing.

 

[Another Reader]

Thresholds and names of Schwab programs have moved around over the years. Latest, per my Schwab guy when I asked him a few months ago, is $1M assets held at Schwab for "Pinnacle" level and $10M for the next step with clients "handled out of New York." We are Pinnacle; I don't remember what the top level is called. For us, Pinnacle doesn't amount to much. We have a rep assigned and he does an excellent job at administriva and any research we ask for. We're also told that our support calls are routed to a higher-capability phone center. Hard to tell about that, but we always get good service and minimal wait times.

Our guy knows we're DIY, so I doubt if he'd refer us to anything like the OP describes. Anyway, we have never heard of it.

Interestingly, I added a HELOC at USBank as a cash cushion while we are building a new second home. After seeing our balance sheet, they moved our checking account (our only relationship with them) into their "Private Wealth Management" program, which garnered one prospecting call from a woman who knew very little about investing.

Curious what HELOC rate and terms you were quoted at US Bank. A couple of years ago, maybe three, I started the process, but never followed through. The rate then was very favorable.

 

[sweetana3]

Have not recd that pitch yet. Did get the expensive dinner years ago when they tried to get us into their pricey wealth management group. Going DIY has gotten us 3X more than we ever planned for in this time period.

 

[OldShooter]

Curious what HELOC rate and terms you were quoted at US Bank. A couple of years ago, maybe three, I started the process, but never followed through. The rate then was very favorable.

Well, it was kind of a screwy deal. I had an old HELOC, unused for probably a decade, that was left over from a business deal. I asked them to freshen that one up with better rates and they ended up starting from scratch. I did not shop it because I only need this cash for a year or two during construction and I thought that using them would be the easiest. So I just took whatever came out the end of the pipe. Rate ended up at 20bps over prime, 30 year term, $250K ceiling. So currently 3.45% but I have not drawn on it yet.

 

[newellcr]

Dawgman,

My wife and I are Schwab clients. We each have low 7 figure accounts and have an assigned Schwab rep who is local (and fantastic). OldShooter mentions service levels, I don't know anything about that and didn't ask when we began to shift away from Vanguard over a year ago. (Thanks for the info OldShooter)

I had several discussions early on with the Schwab rep and he mentioned that we had access to experts based on our asset levels. He would recommend services based on our discussions. I do hear from our rep occasionally by phone and get the occasional personal email when he comes across a topic that he knows I want to hear about. Earlier this year he set up an appointment with a Schwab tax planning expert. We had a 40 minute Zoom discussion with a tax attorney turned Schwab specialist. He stressed that the discussion and future communication (we got a 'recommendation' report) weren't in lieu of getting local tax and estate planning help. It was a fantastic discussion and the report was extremely helpful. We have some SFH and condo rental units and the discussion and report addressed those rental units in addition to the brokerage. We talked about some family wealth and estate topics based on what we told him about our goals and our teenage children.

In discussions before and after with my rep, he mentioned that the services, in small amounts, are free and that they do them frequently with clients. My Schwab rep is my go to guy for general questions and the owner of the local accounting firm that prepares my tax return is my go to guy for tax questions. These two people have been extremely helpful in my current DIY situation. We do plan to move slightly beyond DIY over the next couple of years. It was really comforting to hear that we were positioning ourselves correctly for a segue to assisted planning in the future.

There has been zero pressure for moving into managed accounts or services with fees. Although we did talk about it based on my wife not being comfortable with running investments in case of my untimely demise. I brought the topic up, not the Schwab guy.

I've been thrilled with the help.

Kind Regards,

 

[Dash man]

We have about $4M with Schwab and haven’t heard anything about this new program. Haven’t heard about anything called Pinnacle either. We were DIY for years, but now have about $1.3M in managed accounts to test them out. I’ve seen info on their Private Client program that sounds similar to the new program mentioned above, but there are fees involved. I’m interested if they have something new with no fees. Our go to guy moved to Schwab from USAA when our accounts moved, so we’ve been with him for years.

 

[DawgMan]

Ok, I have a little more information from an email exchange with my assigned "QB". I will still report back after my call/meeting Wed, but here is what I am being told so far about "Wealth Services"...

"... the minimum balance for Wealth Services is $10M at Schwab. We are not part of Schwab Private Client, which is our Registered Investment Advisor arm of Schwab.

There are a lot of services available to our clients of all asset levels and stages of life. Our planning tools, research and investment capabilities and access to advisors is available to all of our clients. The type of advice and depth of planning varies by the client’s personal situation and stage of life. The Wealth Services Team specializes in helping clients who have needs that many others do not. For example, the vast majority of the clients Wealth Services work with will be impacted by some, if not all, of the tax law changes that were proposed last week. By contrast, most clients won’t be impacted by the proposed changes.

It’s not that the products and services available to Wealth Services clients is “better” rather it’s just more relevant and specialized to what they need at this level of wealth."

To be continued...

 

[Another Reader]

Ok, I have a little more information from an email exchange with my assigned "QB". I will still report back after my call/meeting Wed, but here is what I am being told so far about "Wealth Services"...

"... the minimum balance for Wealth Services is $10M at Schwab. We are not part of Schwab Private Client, which is our Registered Investment Advisor arm of Schwab.

There are a lot of services available to our clients of all asset levels and stages of life. Our planning tools, research and investment capabilities and access to advisors is available to all of our clients. The type of advice and depth of planning varies by the client’s personal situation and stage of life. The Wealth Services Team specializes in helping clients who have needs that many others do not. For example, the vast majority of the clients Wealth Services work with will be impacted by some, if not all, of the tax law changes that were proposed last week. By contrast, most clients won’t be impacted by the proposed changes.

It’s not that the products and services available to Wealth Services clients is “better” rather it’s just more relevant and specialized to what they need at this level of wealth."

To be continued...

Pretty sure Fidelity has similar services, or soon will if they don't.

 

[oiseux]

Ok, I have a little more information from an email exchange with my assigned "QB". I will still report back after my call/meeting Wed, but here is what I am being told so far about "Wealth Services"...

"... the minimum balance for Wealth Services is $10M at Schwab. We are not part of Schwab Private Client, which is our Registered Investment Advisor arm of Schwab.

There are a lot of services available to our clients of all asset levels and stages of life. Our planning tools, research and investment capabilities and access to advisors is available to all of our clients. The type of advice and depth of planning varies by the client’s personal situation and stage of life. The Wealth Services Team specializes in helping clients who have needs that many others do not. For example, the vast majority of the clients Wealth Services work with will be impacted by some, if not all, of the tax law changes that were proposed last week. By contrast, most clients won’t be impacted by the proposed changes.

It’s not that the products and services available to Wealth Services clients is “better” rather it’s just more relevant and specialized to what they need at this level of wealth."

To be continued...

Thanks for this explanation. Would be curious to see what is offered and how it compares to the fee-based Private Client. We have used their latest SW platform (which is pretty flexible). We don't have that much there but wondered about any benefits of consolidation.

 

[DawgMan]

Ok, just got off my call with the Schwab Wealth Services guys. The description I provided in my previous post tells most of the story, but it appears there is no sales pitch here. It sounds like it is effectively like the Private Client Group services, but with more specialty on estate planning and tax planning. Min balance requirement is $10M+. I asked them point blank if there was a sales pitch coming (i.e. managed services) and they said no. The know I am/plan to stay DIY. It sounds like they are making the investment in certain clients to 1) ensure client retention and 2) they anticipate $10M+ clients will have a significant wealth transfer and want to be in the saddle for the next generation that inherits the $$. Very professional, so I will keep playing until further notice.