Starting with the July 2016 statements (mailed in August 2016), Schwab will send monthly statements only for accounts where there is “qualifying activity“. Otherwise they will send quarterly statements. You should be prepared for clients to call wondering why their monthly statement only includes $1.2M of their $2.4M in assets.
Non-monthly statements is a change I’ve seen other brokers implement as society trends increasingly mobile and paperless. It can be confusing at first, so you may want to prepare your clients for the switch and/or request the status quo (see below).
What’s changing
If a client does not have a qualifying transaction in July, they will receive no July statement. The next statement they receive will be dated from July 1 and include
all non-qualifying transactions. If they have no qualifying transactions in August either, their next statement will be for the quarter. As noted in the original announcement:
- This change will apply to eStatements, paper statements, and bundled statements.
- Clients who receive bundled statements will only see balances on their bundled statement summary for accounts that have qualifying activity.
- Schwab will send inserts with May statements (sent in June 2016) to alert clients that this policy change is coming.
- Schwab created an FAQ document, which you can find here.
Fortunately, most types of activity generates a monthly statements, so most months clients will receive monthly statements on most — if not all — of their accounts. However, that fact will make the odd months when they receive incomplete statements seem strange. If you don’t trade one month, it is possible that your clients might not receive any statement that month.
What activity generates a statement?
Basically, all transaction types — except regular interest — will generate a statement. According to the FAQs, here how the transactions sort out:
[table]| Activity that generates a statement | Activity that does NOT generate a statement |
| bond interest payments | journal entries within the same account |
| checks written and deposited | money market dividends |
| commission credits | Schwab One interest |
| EFT or money link activity | interest on deposit accounts |
| journal entries between accounts | trades which settle in the next month |
| new account funded | |
| price corrections | |
| reorganizations | |
| Schwab One transactions | |
| stock dividends | |
| trades settling in the month | |
| transactions related to Bank Sweep (not including interest) |
What if you want monthly statements?
According to the FAQs, prior to July 15, 2016, you can request monthly statements regardless of activity by contacting your Relationship Manager or your Service Team. After July 15, 2016, you can request monthly statements via the Statement Preferences Form on schwabadvisorcenter.com.
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