Charles Schwab 2015 Annual Report Download - page 25

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THE CHARLES SCHWAB CORPORATION
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To help IAs grow and manage their practices, the Company offers a variety of services, including business management and
technology and operations consulting on a variety of topics critical to an IA’s success including strategic business planning,
client segmentation, growth strategies, technological strategies and succession planning. The Advisor Services website
provides interactive tools, educational content, and research reports to assist advisors thinking about establishing and
managing their own independent practices.
The Company offers an array of services to help advisors establish their own independent practices through the Business
Start-up Solutions package. These services include access to dedicated service teams and outsourcing of back-office
operations, as well as third-party firms who provide assistance with real estate, errors and omissions insurance, and company
benefits.
The Company offers a variety of educational materials, programs, and events to IAs seeking to expand their knowledge of
industry issues and trends, as well as sharpen their individual expertise and practice management skills. The Company
updates and shares market research on an ongoing basis, and it holds a series of events and conferences every year to discuss
topics of interest to IAs, including business strategies and best practices. The Company sponsors the annual IMPACT®
conference, which provides a national forum for the Company, IAs, and other industry participants to gather and share
information and insights, as well as a multitude of smaller events across the country each year.
IAs and their clients have access to a broad range of the Company’s products and services, including individual securities,
mutual funds, ETFs, managed accounts, and cash products.
The Advisor Services segment also includes the Retirement Business Services and Corporate Brokerage Retirement Services
business units. Retirement Business Services provides trust, custody, and retirement business services to independent
retirement plan advisors and independent recordkeepers. Plan assets are held at the Business Trust division of Schwab Bank.
The Company and independent retirement plan providers work together to serve plan sponsors, combining the consulting and
administrative expertise of the administrator with the Company’s investment, technology, trust, and custodial services.
Retirement Business Services also offers the Schwab Personal Choice Retirement Account®, a self-directed brokerage
offering for retirement plans.
Corporate Brokerage Retirement Services serves plan sponsors, advisors and independent recordkeepers seeking a brokerage-
based account to hold retirement plan assets. Plans held at Schwab are either self-trusteed or trusteed by a separate,
independent trustee. Corporate Brokerage Retirement Services also offers the Schwab Personal Choice Retirement Account®,
and the Company Retirement Account, both of which are self-directed brokerage-based solutions designed to hold the assets
of company-sponsored retirement plans.
Regulation
As a participant in the securities, banking and financial services industries, the Company is subject to extensive regulation
under both federal and state laws by governmental agencies, supervisory authorities, and self-regulatory organizations
(SROs). The Company is also subject to oversight by regulatory bodies in other countries in which the Company operates.
These regulations affect the Company’s business operations and impose capital, client protection and market conduct
requirements.
The financial services industry has been subject to enhanced levels of regulatory oversight in recent years, and the Company
expects this trend to continue for the foreseeable future. As a result of the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform
and Consumer Protection Act in 2010 (Dodd-Frank), the adoption of implementing regulations by the federal regulatory
agencies, and other recent regulatory reforms, the Company has experienced significant changes in the laws and regulations
that apply to it, how it is regulated, and regulatory expectations in the areas of compliance, risk management, corporate
governance, operations, capital and liquidity.
Holding Company and Bank Regulation
CSC is a savings and loan holding company and Schwab Bank, CSC’s depository institution subsidiary, is a federal savings
bank. CSC is regulated, examined and supervised by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal
Reserve), and Schwab Bank is regulated, examined and supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC),