Schwab Launches Services to Support TPAs' Commission-Based Advisor Clients

Schwab Launches Services to Support TPAs' Commission-Based
Advisor Clients 


SAN FRANCISCO, March 15  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Schwab Corporate Services
today introduced Schwab Retirement Advisor Services, an offering that enables
third party administrators (TPAs) to serve commission-based retirement advisors
via the same integrated trading and services platform as their fee-based
advisor and plan sponsor clients.

Schwab Retirement Advisor Services allows TPAs to include both commissionable
and non-commissionable mutual funds within the same plan so that retirement
advisors can tailor their fee-collection and payment methods to best meet the
needs of the plans they serve. "Schwab Retirement Advisor Services is designed
to help TPAs grow their businesses with retirement advisors, who control the
majority of assets in the small to mid-size 401(k) market," said Mark Coffrini,
vice president of Schwab Corporate Services. "Our offering allows TPAs to
streamline their operations by providing the option to consolidate all their
business -- commission-based as well as fee-only -- on a single trading
platform."

Schwab Retirement Advisor Services is part of the rapidly growing Schwab
Corporate Services group (SCS), which provides workplace financial benefit plan
services. In 2004, Schwab Corporate Services posted record performance,
bringing in $7.7 billion in new net assets and attracting 28 new TPAs to its
network. Schwab Retirement Technologies, a unit of SCS, successfully rolled out
its new online application service provider model, which TPAs are already
utilizing to serve more than 250,000 plan participants.

Through Schwab Retirement Advisor Services, the individual strengths and
expertise of the TPA and the retirement advisor are provided to plan sponsors
through a seamless combination of relationship management, investment
selection, technology and security.

Key features of Schwab Retirement Advisor Services include:

-- Early morning trade verification/ delivery of price/position/activity
reconciliation information

-- Continuous online updating of cash receipts and fund trading confirmations

-- Web access to comprehensive mutual fund information tailored to retirement
advisors

Participating fund families include AIM Investments, American Funds, Davis
Funds, Eaton Vance, Evergreen Investments, Federated Investors, Franklin
Templeton Investments, Gartmore Funds, Goldman Sachs, ING Funds, Janus, Lord
Abbett, MFS, PIMCO Advisors, Oppenheimer and Van Kampen Investments.

About Schwab Corporate Services

Schwab Corporate Services (SCS) provides services to retirement plans,
retirement plan sponsors and participants through Schwab Retirement Plan
Services, Inc. (SRPS), The Charles Schwab Trust Company (CSTC), Schwab
Retirement Technologies(R), and Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. SCS also provides
equity compensation plan services and other financial and retirement services
to corporations and executives.

SRPS provides recordkeeping and related services with respect to retirement
plans. CSTC, a California state-chartered trust company, provides trust and
custody services with respect to benefit plans. Schwab Retirement Technologies
is engaged in developing and licensing proprietary retirement plan
recordkeeping systems to independent Third Party Administrators. Charles Schwab
& Co., Inc. (Member SIPC) is a registered broker/dealer, offering the Schwab
Personal Choice Retirement Account(R) (PCRA), as well as other brokerage and
custody services to its customers. These entities are affiliates of each other
and are wholly owned subsidiaries of The Charles Schwab Corporation. Total
client assets in employer-sponsored retirement plans at Schwab equaled $131
billion at the end of December 2004. The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE /
Nasdaq: SCH), through Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (member SIPC), U.S. Trust
Corporation (member FDIC), CyberTrader(R), Inc. (member SIPC) and its other
operating subsidiaries, is one of the nation's largest financial services
firms. (0305-6654) 

DATASOURCE: Charles Schwab



CONTACT:  Lindsay Tiles of Charles Schwab, [phone], or

; or Hope Heyman of Edelman, [phone], or

, for Charles Schwab



Web site:  http://www.schwab.com/ 

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