What's New: Trading & Investment Management
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.
Tax-sensitive portfolio management in iRebal
iRebal now supports tax-sensitive portfolio management.
There are two options: avoid short-term gains and avoid all gains. You can apply these choices to individual portfolios or to all of your firm's portfolios in the iRebal environment. Previously, to limit gains users were required to review position or lot-level details on suggested sells and edit as needed.
If you are interested in using the powerful tools on the iRebal platform, please complete the interest survey to add your firm to our weekly onboarding process.
To learn more, watch this short iRebal demo, review our iRebal interactive guide, and sign up for our weekly iRebal webcasts.
December (1224-8FVL)
New timing choices let you keep orders active for extended trading sessions
New trading designations let you place equity orders that remain open outside of standard trading hours, providing more flexibility and convenience to meet your clients' needs.
Because you can now place limit trades that are active in more than one trading session, you can capitalize on breaking news—such as after-hours earning reports—that could impact your trading strategy.
The new Day Ext and GTD Ext designations are available only for limit orders placed through the Manual Order Entry, Import Trade Files, or Order Status page. These orders are active during all trading hours, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time. GTD (good-till-date) orders can be placed until the expiration date you choose—between 1 and 180 calendar days after the order is opened.
When using the Import Trade Files page, please note that this feature is currently available only for trades that are manually added to that blotter. A future enhancement will expand support so you can import trades designated for extended hours.
October (1024-TDCX)
iRebal is now available to all firms—take an interest survey to get started
iRebal is now available for use by all firms that custody assets with Schwab.
When we started offering iRebal integration last year, the response was overwhelming, with 2,000 firms expressing interest. We have since offered iRebal access to those firms and are pleased to announce that we can now offer access to any firm that is ready to take advantage of this powerful tool.
iRebal is Schwab's premier rebalancing platform, designed to integrate seamlessly into your firm's workflows, and once you've customized it to your preferences, can shorten manual rebalancing efforts from weeks to hours. It is a customizable, rule-based program that uses real-time balances and positions to offer you more effective portfolio management. It has tools to handle tax-efficient rebalancing, dynamic cash management, tax-loss harvesting, and more. iRebal is free for all accounts custodied with Schwab. And because iRebal is an integral part of Schwab Advisor Center, implementation is simple.
As we announced last month, we are enhancing both the iRebal platform and Model Market Center (which offers access to hundreds of models from leading money managers, most with no fee). Further enhancements are planned for this year, so there's never been a better time to get started.
Simply complete the interest survey to add your firm to our weekly onboarding process.
To learn more, watch this short iRebal demo, review our iRebal Interactive Guide, and sign up for our weekly iRebal webcasts.
September (0924-NTAR)
Place "good till date" orders for equities and options
Advisors can now designate orders for equity and options trades as "good till date" (GTD).
With this new feature, advisors can select an order expiration date between the next business day and up to 180 calendar days. Previously, only "good till cancelled" (GTC) orders were available, which expired in 180 calendar days.
A new Expiration Date column on the Order Status and Blotter screens makes it easy to track this new order type. You can add this column to your existing views and export or print the data for your records.
This new order type is available on the following pages of the web trading platform:
- Manual Order Entry
- Import Trade Files (Add Order only; GTD import order functionality is on the horizon)
- Order Status
As part of this enhancement, all GTC-designated orders will be updated to GT6m, or "good till 6 months," which is the designation used on Schwab's other trading platforms.
September (0924-NTAR)
New enhancements to Model Market Center are now available to iRebal users
Model Market Center is one of the most powerful tools available on the iRebal platform, offering access to hundreds of models from recognized money managers—most available without a Strategist fee.1 And with recent enhancements, it's now even better. New features that users will enjoy:
- Subscribe to up to five models at a time, then immediately leverage those models—assign them to portfolios, create new blended models, or add them to an existing blended model—all through a single intuitive workflow.
- Use enhanced filtering capabilities to customize your view of models. Easily resize, reorder, or hide columns to suit your needs, making it quick and easy to view and work with the models you need.
In addition, we are pleased to announce that all firms that have previously requested access to iRebal have been onboarded to the platform, so new firms can now get access in a matter of days, with no extended delays.
To get started, please complete our iRebal interest survey today. It provides us with important details about your firm's rebalancing needs and is your first step to accessing exciting tools like Model Market Center.
1Standard Schwab custody fees and fund management fees apply. For models that charge a Strategist Fee: The Strategist Fee, in basis points, is set by the model manager and can be seen directly on the Models page in Model Market Center.
August (1224-8DDR)
Schwab is revising our settlement practices starting May 28 to meet new T+1 standards
To minimize market, credit, and liquidity risks that can incur between the inception of a trade and its settlement date, the SEC formally mandated that equity, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, unit investment trusts, as well as financial instruments composed of ETFs, ADRs, and rights and warrants must be settled within one day (T+1) instead of the previous industry-standard two-day (T+2) time frame.
Schwab is revising our settlement practices beginning May 28, 2024, to meet the new industry standards. This change means that sellers will receive proceeds more quickly, and buyers must have funds available one day sooner. See the schedule to the right for trade settlement timing leading up to and after the change.
For more information, please review the T+1 Advisor FAQ. If you have additional questions, please contact the trading desk.
March 2024 (0324-4DNK)
Explore key Schwab products on the Investment Solutions tab
It is now easier than ever to explore the many products and services Schwab has designed for advisors like you. With the new Investment Solutions tab on the main Schwab Advisor Center navigation menu, you can learn more about everything from outsourcing to portfolio management in a few clicks.
The Investment Solutions tab features an array of sub-tabs, each offering an overview of a different product:
- Model Market Center: iRebal users can access hundreds of models from recognized money managers, many available with no strategist fee, for Use in the portfolio construction and rebalancing process.
- Schwab Personalized Indexing™. Learn more about this direct indexing solution from Schwab Asset Management, offering greater control over investments, with lower minimums than the industry standard.
- Alternative investments. Explore the variety of platforms Schwab offers to let your clients add alternative assets to their portfolios.
- Managed accounts: Choose from three distinct managed account offers to meet your clients' needs, including our dual-contract Managed Account Marketplace®, single-contract Managed Account Select® and single-contract Managed Account Access®, which includes Schwab's Personalized Indexing strategies as an option.
Each tab includes high-level product information, as well as links to support resources such as videos, PDFs, and other tools to help you decide which solutions are right for your clients.
February 2024 (1224-8DDR)
View aggregate trading balances at the firm level and more
We have added new features to our web trading platform to make your trading experience better than ever.
We added a new Firm view to the Manual Order Entry and Trade From Positions pages. When the toggle is turned on, you can see the real-time aggregate balances and positions for all of your firm's master accounts in a single view. You can also use the dropdown menu to select only certain master accounts for this aggregate view. The display changes depending on whether you have chosen to view all accounts or only selected ones. This enhancement makes it easier to allocate and place block trades for all of your book of business.
In addition, you can now use the Trading Preferences screen to set a default master account for block trades, helping you place these trades faster. Note that the master account you select must have trading authority for this function.
We will continue enhancing your trading experience in the coming months.
February 2024 (0224-4WTH)
Enrich your trading experience with thinkpipes
We are thrilled to announce that thinkpipes, Schwab's powerful and innovative trading platform, is now available to all Schwab clients. In addition to streaming market data, thinkpipes delivers real-time analytics, robust charting features, and sophisticated portfolio analytics allowing you to trade the way you want. And because thinkpipes is fully integrated with Schwab Advisor Center, trading and account information flows easily between applications.
Key features include:
- Advanced trading capabilities such as pre- and post-block trade allocations, robust analysis, and complex options functionality
- Smart navigational features, including customizable menus and point-and-click trading
- Flexible data solutions that offer easy-to-import orders and allocations, simple Excel exporting, and one-click access to account views
Click here to learn more or contact the thinkpipes Support Desk to gain platform access and schedule your personal walk-through.
Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m. ET
866-547-8431
December 2023 (1223-31WZ)
Options carry a high level of risk and are not suitable for all investors. Certain requirements must be met to trade options through Schwab. Please read the options disclosure document titled Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options. Supporting documentation for any claims or statistical information is available on request.
Access to real-time market data is conditioned on acceptance of the exchange agreements. Fees apply.
Market volatility, volume, and system availability may delay account access and trade executions.
Put the power of the Strategy Desk to work for you
The Strategy Desk is part of Schwab's comprehensive suite of trading services designed to help you optimize your clients' investments. Whether you are looking for alternative ways to protect positions, potentially generate portfolio income, or mitigate risk in concentrated holdings with options strategies, we can help.
One-on-one strategy consultations
Our experienced strategists can help you with a wide range of options strategies. They can identify potential benefits and risks to consider when using options, as well as help you effectively communicate those concepts to your clients.
Weekly trading webcast series
Join us every Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. ET to hear our strategists and special guests discuss a variety of trading topics, including options strategies, technical analysis, macroeconomic insights, and more. Most webcasts are approved to earn 1 CFP®, CIMA®, CPWA®, or RMA® CE credit per webcast.
Market insights
Prepare for the upcoming week in the markets with Macro Monday, our one-page, high-level market brief. It covers key market levels, a recap of the previous week, a look at the week ahead, a chart of the week, and more.
Our goal is to provide you with the tools and knowledge you need to help your clients pursue their investing goals. And the best part? It's free to all Schwab clients. Click here to learn more.
December 2023 (1223-322Z)
Options carry a high level of risk and are not suitable for all investors. Certain requirements must be met to trade options through Schwab. Please read the options disclosure document titled Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options. Supporting documentation for any claims or statistical information is available on request.
iRebal now available to existing users; phased rollout to more firms begins in Q4
We are very pleased to announce that iRebal is now integrated into Schwab Advisor Center and available for use by firms that formerly used it on Veo One®. Advisors who previously managed accounts on both Veo One and Schwab Advisor Center can now use iRebal with all of their accounts—not just those that were previously on the TD Ameritrade platform.
iRebal is Schwab's premier rebalancing platform, designed to seamlessly integrate into your firm's workflows and shorten manual rebalancing efforts from weeks to hours. It is a customizable, rule-based program that uses real-time balances and positions to offer you more effective portfolio management. It includes tools to handle tax-efficient rebalancing, dynamic cash management, tax-loss harvesting, and more—all through an intuitive interface. iRebal is free for all accounts custodied with Schwab. And because iRebal is seamlessly integrated into Schwab Advisor Center, implementation is a breeze.
We know that there's a great deal of excitement among advisors who have not previously had access to this platform. We will start the phased rollout of iRebal in Q4; in the meantime, please express your interest and provide us with some important details about your firm's rebalancing needs by completing our iRebal interest survey today.
We are taking a phased approach to ensure a seamless onboarding experience for each firm. The feedback you provide in this survey will help us determine the optimal timing for onboarding each firm that has expressed interest. As a result, we are unable to provide a specific date when your firm will have access.
We thank you for your patience and will continue to communicate our progress throughout the rollout.
September 2023 (0-3FWM)
iRebal® is a technology offering of Schwab. Rebalancing does not protect against losses or guarantee that an investor's goals will be met. Market volatility, volume and system availability may delay account access and trade executions.
New trading alerts keep you up-to-date on your orders
We have created a number of new trading alerts that keep you informed about the progress of your orders without the need to stay glued to your trading screen. With this enhancement, you can use the Alerts page as a dashboard to monitor all of your activities across Schwab Advisor Center's many tools—including trading.
These new alert types include:
- Block Execution of master account limit orders
- Options Assignment, Options Exercise, and Options Expiration list the accounts affected by these actions
- Anytime an account limit order is executed, you will receive an Order Filled alert
- Whenever your master and account level good till canceled/good till date has an Expired Order (coming soon)
- If you have any unallocated block trades in a master account, you will receive an automated Unallocated Trade alert, replacing the manual alerts previously sent by the trading desk
You don't need to take any action—all traders are automatically enrolled in these alerts. If you wish to make changes to your alert subscriptions, please visit the Settings page.
September 2023 (0-3FWM)
Automatic mutual fund investing made easy
We have launched the new Mutual Fund Automatic Investment Plan digital experience on Schwab Advisor Center, delivering a modern approach to managing dollar-cost averaging for mutual funds. The platform provides a fully digital experience, eliminating the need for a paper application, verbal instructions, and service requests to enroll or make changes to your clients’ systematic investing or redemption needs. The new feature delivers:
- A streamlined digital approach to establishing new or to change current instructions—eliminating paper
- New investment frequencies
- An easy way for investors to establish sell-side transactions and date flexibility
- Support for systematic redemptions
- A reduced transaction fee of $10 or a maximum of 8.5% of principal for mutual funds on the Reduced Transaction Fee list
No Transaction Fee funds will continue to have no commission fee for trades executed through the Mutual Fund Automatic Investment Plan platform.
Dollar-cost averaging instructions have automatically converted to the Mutual Fund Automatic Investment Plan platform, so no action on your part is required. For more information, please visit the Trading page on Schwab Advisor Center and select Automatic MF Investment from the menu or click here for an overview of the platform.
May 2023 (0523-3W3X)
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.
Periodic investment plans (dollar-cost-averaging) do not ensure a profit and do not protect against loss in declining markets.
Please see the pricing guide for additional information.
Schwab Advisor Services™ serves independent investment advisors and includes the custody, trading, and support services of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.
Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. 3000 Schwab Way, Westlake, TX 76262
©2023 Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. ("Schwab"). All rights reserved. Member SIPC.
Capital call payments just got easier
We are pleased to announce that an update to the Alternative Investment Letter of Authorization form (APP47122AS) now allows your clients to authorize the entire capital call commitment up front.
With a single authorization, Schwab can now take action whenever the issuer requests a capital call payment, without the need to reach out for each authorization, streamlining the experience for you and your clients.
We hope that these and future improvements to Schwab Advisor Center make conducting business on behalf of your clients and firm even better. If you have any questions about this change, please contact the Advisor Services Alternative Investment Team at (877) 523-1598.
May 2023 (0523-3R4H)
Improve your trading strategies with the Post Trade Execution Quality Report
When it comes to placing orders for equities and ETF's, we know that price, liquidity, and speed are all vital. That's why we're introducing the new Post Trade Execution Quality Report, designed to help you evaluate and improve your order executions.
The report:
- Measures the quality of your executions at Schwab on a quarterly basis
- Gives you high-level insights into price improvement, how liquidity is sourced, and the speed of execution
- Provides a detailed look into individual orders
We invite you to contact the trading desk to discuss your report. Our experts can help you identify order types that in the future could benefit from leveraging the Trading Team's expertise, along with their high-touch institutional trading tools.
With this report, you'll learn how to improve your trading strategies and reduce the implicit costs associated with placing trades. To receive this quarterly report, submit a service request on Schwab Advisor Center (topic: Equity Post Execution; subtopic: Post Trade Execution Quality Report).
April 2023 (0423-3V78)
Orders stay active longer after an increase to GTC expiration time limit
We are pleased to announce that the good-till-canceled (GTC) expiration time limit for all new stock orders has increased from 60 days to 180 days, allowing orders to stay active longer and reducing the need to reenter them after expiration.
GTC orders are automatically canceled at market close on the selected date or, if the selected date falls on a weekend or holiday, on the last day the market is open. All existing GTC orders will still expire at 60 days and must be reentered to leverage the new 180-day limit.
We hope that these and future improvements to Schwab Advisor Center will make conducting business on behalf of your clients and firm even better. If you have any questions about this change or another trading-related matter, please contact the trading desk.
February 2023 (0223-34F3)
New Argus and CFRA reports available on the Stock Summary page
To enhance the variety of sources available to advisors on the Research tab, we have added reports from Argus and CFRA to the Stock Summary page. These high-quality analyses from leading firms facilitate making important choices when trading for your clients' accounts.
- The Argus Options report gives you access to economic forecasts and analyses that are designed to help you evaluate options investments.
- The CFRA Quantitative Report provides a broad array of fundamental, quantitative, and technical data to help identify potential investment opportunities.
To access either of these reports navigate to the Research tab and scroll down to the Ratings panel on the Stock Summary page.
October 2022 (1022-2DCM)
Round off your investment research with new ESG ratings from MSCI
Why not look at all the information? Now in addition to using traditional methods to analyze stocks, you can expand your lens to evaluate a company's management of financially relevant environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities.
To bring you these new insights, we selected the rating system from MSCI, which has more than 40 years of experience measuring and modeling ESG performance:
- ESG ratings of 8,500 companies (14,000 issuers, including subsidiaries) and more than 680,000 equity and fixed income securities globally1
- Leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing
- Strong team of 200+ analysts
Explore the MSCI ESG Ratings on the Stock Summary page and see how your favorite companies perform relative to their peers.
1. Source MSCI ESG Research, November 2020
July 2022 (0722-2BEM)
