What's New: Digital Workflows

Schwab Advisor Center® has digital tools and resources to help you onboard new relationships, support your clients, and scale your business. Below you can learn about the latest enhancements and resources, or explore recent updates by clicking on a topic.

Now you can open and fund a new PAL account digitally

The new digital Pledged Asset Line (PAL) application process provides a seamless, simple, and intuitive experience. Advisors no longer need to initiate an application over the phone with a support team member. Instead you can access the digital application from Schwab Advisor Center.

Opening PAL accounts digitally offers a variety of benefits:

  • Creating PAL estimates and proposals
  • Initiating and sending PAL loan applications to clients for authorization  
  • Using auto-populated data fields that help reduce manual entry and not-in-good-order issues
  • Existing brokerage accounts will convert to PAL accounts, no longer requiring a new account to be opened

This enhancement is part of our continued effort to deliver more efficient options to meet your clients’ needs while allowing quicker access to funding. Learn more about PAL or access the digital PAL application process guide.

Reminder: Don't miss the chance to learn more about the PAL application process and other digital tools at the virtual SOLUTIONS event August 15-16.

Schwab registration >    TD Ameritrade registration >

August 2023 (0823-3AG2)

For institutional use only—not for further distribution. This material may not be forwarded or made available, in whole or in part, to any party who is not a financial professional.

Schwab Advisor Services™ serves independent investment advisors and includes the custody, trading, and support services of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. Independent investment advisors are not owned by, affiliated with, or supervised by Schwab.

Brokerage products, including the Pledged Asset Line account, are offered by Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., member SIPC, and are not insured by the FDIC, are not deposits or obligations of Charles Schwab Bank, SSB or Charles Schwab Premier Bank, SSB, and are subject to investment risk, including the possible loss of principal invested. Deposit and lending products, including the Pledged Asset Line, are offered by Charles Schwab Bank, SSB and Charles Schwab Premier Bank, SSB, members FDIC. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.; Charles Schwab Bank, SSB; and Charles Schwab Premier Bank, SSB are separate but affiliated companies and subsidiaries of The Charles Schwab Corporation.

Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., 3000 Schwab Way, Westlake, TX 76262-8104

©2023 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. All rights reserved. Member SIPC


Help clients give third-party access with an all-digital workflow

We are pleased to introduce the third digital account maintenance workflow, which allows you to initiate a new request to transfer assets from outside accounts, then send the request to your client for digital approval in seconds via their desktop or mobile device.

This new workflow joins our existing Schwab MoneyLink® and beneficiary designation workflows. We have also produced a new step-by-step guide to both; we recommend that you bookmark it now, as we will update the guide as new workflows become available.

This all-digital process is similar to the digital onboarding experience and offers comparable benefits:

  • Save time and reduce errors using a guided workflow that auto-fills and validates client information from Schwab. 
  • You can enter key information, or, if you don't have it, your client can enter the data during the approval process, so you don't have to spend time chasing down details.
  • The workflow features detailed status tracking and the ability to recall, edit, and resend digital envelopes.

Note that clients must have Schwab Alliance credentials to access the digital envelope for eAuthorization. For clients without access, you can print a prefilled PDF file to send them for a wet signature.

We will be adding more account maintenance workflows over the coming months to deliver a similar secure, efficient, all-digital experience for other routine tasks.

October 2022 (1022-2DCM)


Easy-to-complete templates for popular Schwab forms, full access to the DocuSign console, and more

Recently, we launched a completely new DocuSign® experience on Schwab Advisor Center.

If you have used DocuSign on other platforms, you will find the new workflow to be similar to those. You now have full access to the DocuSign console, as well as to 80+ templated Schwab forms that prefill and pretag based on Schwab data.

We have created an interactive guide that walks you through the process for both you and your clients. We invite you to attend one of our upcoming webcasts to learn more about the new changes. 

In addition, below you'll find some of the most important things to keep in mind before you get started.

  1. Before you use the new workflow, you must create new DocuSign credentials, even if you have existing Schwab DocuSign credentials or credentials for other instances of DocuSign outside of Schwab Advisor Center.
  2. There are now two options for creating digital envelopes with DocuSign on Schwab Advisor Center: 
    • Through the Schwab Advisor Center workflow, which leverages 80+ templated Schwab forms that prefill and pretag data
    • By completing PDF forms yourself and creating the digital envelope directly from the DocuSign console
  3. Your client will be asked to verify their identity before approving the documents. You have two choices for authentication:
    • They can verify their identity via text-based SMS message with a code they must input to proceed.
    • You can opt to have them pass a knowledge-based authentication method where they are asked to answer three questions about themselves, in addition to the SMS verification outlined above.

While Schwab's digital onboarding tools are still the best, fastest, and most secure way to open accounts at Schwab, we hope those who rely on DocuSign for their firm's workflows will enjoy the new, feature-rich experience.

October 2022 (1022-2DCM)


Help clients transfer assets with an all-digital workflow

We are pleased to introduce the third digital account maintenance workflow, which allows you to initiate a new request to transfer assets from outside accounts, then send the request to your client for digital approval in seconds via their desktop or mobile device.

This new workflow joins our existing Schwab MoneyLink® and beneficiary designation workflows. We have also produced a new step-by-step guide to both; we recommend that you bookmark it now, as we will update the guide as new workflows become available.

This all-digital process is similar to the digital onboarding experience and offers comparable benefits:

  • Save time and reduce errors using a guided workflow that auto-fills and validates client information from Schwab. 
  • You can enter key information, or, if you don't have it, your client can enter the data during the approval process, so you don't have to spend time chasing down details.
  • The workflow features detailed status tracking and the ability to recall, edit, and resend digital envelopes.

Note that clients must have Schwab Alliance credentials to access the digital envelope for eAuthorization. For clients without access, you can print a prefilled PDF file to send them for a wet signature.

We will be adding more account maintenance workflows over the coming months to deliver a similar secure, efficient, all-digital experience for other routine tasks.

October 2022 (1022-2DCM)


New interactive guide for account maintenance workflows

A digital account maintenance workflow will be available soon! It will allow you to initiate a new request to designate beneficiaries for applicable accounts, then send the request to your client for digital approval in seconds via their desktop or mobile device.

This new workflow is an addition to our existing Schwab MoneyLink® account maintenance workflow. Bookmark the new step-by-step guide for both. We'll update the guide as new workflows become available. 

This all-digital process is similar to the digital onboarding experience and offers comparable benefits:

  • Save time and reduce errors, using a guided workflow that auto-fills and validates client information from Schwab 
  • You can enter key information or, if you don't have it, your client can enter it during the approval process, so you don't have to spend time chasing down details
  • Features detailed status tracking and the ability to recall, edit, and resend digital envelopes

Note that clients must have Schwab Alliance credentials to access the digital envelope for eAuthorization. For a client without access, you can print a prefilled PDF file to send to them for a wet signature.

We will be adding more account maintenance workflows in the coming months to deliver a similar secure, efficient, all-digital experience for other routine tasks.

September 2022 (0922-24YE)


The first in a series of new digital account management workflows

We have a new digital workflow that allows you to initiate Schwab MoneyLink transactions and send them to your clients to approve in seconds via their desktops or mobile devices.

This streamlined process is similar to the digital onboarding experience and offers comparable benefits:

  • Save time and reduce errors using a guided workflow that auto-fills and validates client information from Schwab 
  • If you have the external bank information, you can enter it. If not, your client can enter it during the approval process, so you don't have to spend time chasing down details
  • Features detailed status tracking and the ability to recall, edit, and resend digital envelopes

Note that clients must have Schwab Alliance credentials to access the digital envelope for eAuthorization. For clients without access, you can print a prefilled PDF file to send them for a wet signature.

We will be adding new account maintenance workflows over the coming months, to deliver a similar secure, efficient, all-digital experience for other routine tasks.

August 2022 (0822-2ZA7)


August 2023 (0823-3AG2)