How to drop advisor from Schwab acct?

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Topic Author
SnowSkier
Posts: 268
Joined: Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:21 pm
Location: Austin

How to drop advisor from Schwab acct?

Post by SnowSkier »

My retired mom has a Schwab One brokerage account that is advisor-managed. Advisor fees are 0.8% AUM. Fortunately, she is considering discontinuing the advisor's services (and AUM fees) going forward. If she decides to make the change, she'll communicate her decision to the advisor.

She and I have a question about the Schwab side of things...

Can she just contact Schwab, and have them change her account from advisor account to non-advisor account? That is my understanding, but I wanted to check for any boglehead experience/input on this question.

Hoping that Schwab makes this easy. Would like to avoid the slight hassle of moving assets in-kind (all are individual stocks, with capital gains) to Vanguard Brokerage or Fidelity. Moving the assets of course shouldn't be necessary, and it's in Schwab's best interests to make this type of change easy to avoid losing the assets.
stlutz
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Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2009 12:08 am

Re: How to drop advisor from Schwab acct?

Post by stlutz »

Schwab has excellent customer service. I'm sure if you called them up and told them what you want to do it shouldn't be that difficult.
fx24
Posts: 54
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2011 10:23 pm

Re: How to drop advisor from Schwab acct?

Post by fx24 »

You will likely have to open new accounts. The existing accounts have access rights and duplicate statement reporting. You will not want statements or access being continued after your advisor. The existing account may also have encoding as "managed accounts". Pretty certain you will need to open new accounts.
EnjoyIt
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Joined: Sun Dec 29, 2013 7:06 pm

Re: How to drop advisor from Schwab acct?

Post by EnjoyIt »

I recently did something similar and it was very easy. You will not need to create a new account, you can just drop the advisor, sell all her assets and then buy whatever you want. Their customer service is very good and they will walk you through it.
A time to EVALUATE your jitters: | viewtopic.php?p=1139732#p1139732
Topic Author
SnowSkier
Posts: 268
Joined: Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:21 pm
Location: Austin

Re: How to drop advisor from Schwab acct?

Post by SnowSkier »

Thanks all! We will call Schwab. My understanding matches up with beckmaster's feedback...no need to create a new account. We'll find out for sure.
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mister_sparkle
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Location: North Carolina

Re: How to drop advisor from Schwab acct?

Post by mister_sparkle »

I just went through this. My advisor contacted Schwab and they took their name off my account. The only change of note was my accounts changing from Advisor accounts to Investor accounts.
earlyout
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Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2007 4:24 pm

Re: How to drop advisor from Schwab acct?

Post by earlyout »

When you call Schwab to have them drop the advisor you should make clear that they understand how you want to handle the account. Go over the options with the Schwab Customer Service rep. Do you want to reinvest dividends or hold as cash? Electronic or hard copy reporting? Format of report? I went through this last summer with accounts at Schwab and a few of these items were changed. They were very good about reversing the changes but it is better to review these items when you call to drop the advisor. It is very easy to do and Schwab customer service is very helpful.
chw
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Re: How to drop advisor from Schwab acct?

Post by chw »

stlutz wrote:Schwab has excellent customer service. I'm sure if you called them up and told them what you want to do it shouldn't be that difficult.
This s exactly what I did when I moved away a few years ago from my advisor. If I recall I may have had to send the request in writing as well. Either way, it was very easy. As a courtesy, I did inform the advisor by email as well of the effective date of termination.
Don46
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Re: How to drop advisor from Schwab acct?

Post by Don46 »

I went through this recently after considerable thought and a lot of reading on this website. I spoke with people at the nearest Schwab office first, told them what I planned to do, then wrote an email to my adviser. He took it well and I moved on. All the accounts stayed where they were but the status changed. It was costing me about 20k a year to have over 2 million managed, and the overall performance lagged the benchmarks one would normally use for a taxable and tax deferred account. I'm glad I pulled the plug. Unfortunately, there are costs to selling off in the taxable account, but I figure that sooner or later I'm likely to pay capital gains on those funds so I will sell them off in stages over the next two to three years and then get in line with a low cost portfolio of index funds and ETFs. I'm feeling good about it thus far. I'll use that 20k to travel in Europe with my wife, get the house painted, and enjoy some more evenings out. :sharebeer
Topic Author
SnowSkier
Posts: 268
Joined: Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:21 pm
Location: Austin

Re: How to drop advisor from Schwab acct?

Post by SnowSkier »

Thanks all! Very helpful and greatly appreciated.
bondsr4me
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Re: How to drop advisor from Schwab acct?

Post by bondsr4me »

OP: it sounds like you must be very happy with Schwab and don't want to leave them.

any particular reasons you care to share as to why you "wouldn't" want to change to VG or Fidelity?

just curious that's all....always looking to see how others feel about using a particular broker.

thanks and Happy Investing,

don
Topic Author
SnowSkier
Posts: 268
Joined: Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:21 pm
Location: Austin

Re: How to drop advisor from Schwab acct?

Post by SnowSkier »

My mom's accounts: Schwab taxable, Vanguard IRA, Vanguard taxable. She and I are both very happy with Vanguard and with Schwab. On the Vanguard side, she has low-cost index funds like TBM, TSM, TISM, TBM, VFSUX (short term investment grade), and VWIUX (intermediate term tax exempt). On the Schwab side she has ~30 individual stocks, all with capital gains, which happen to look similar to VYM and/or VIG. Due to the capital gains, we are reluctant to sell the individual stocks. If we moved the stocks in-kind to Vanguard, it would of course be Vanguard Brokerage. I like the Schwab online user interface much better than the Vanguard Brokerage online user interface.

For myself, accounts at Vanguard (Taxable, Roths) and Fidelity (401k, solo401k (so I can do backdoor Roths)). Very happy with both. Again, I dislike Vanguard Brokerage compared to Fidelity due to ease of use, user interface, etc.

So, net net, happy with Vanguard, Fidelity, and Schwab. Not happy with Vanguard Brokerage and prefer to avoid where possible except for my one Vanguard Brokerage holding VSS (which I prefer to the equivalent Vanguard mutual fund).
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