Charles Schwab plans to launch its direct indexing offering, called Schwab Personalized Indexing, early next year, according to Omar Aguilar, the chief investment officer of Schwab Asset Management.
In a presentation at this week's Schwab Impact 2021 conference, Aguilar said the offering, which is currently being piloted, will be based initially on three indexes: the large-cap Schwab 1000 Index, S&P Small Cap 600 Index and the MSCI KLD 400 Social Index.
Using the program, advisors will be able to adjust clients' allocations in these indexes to align with their value preferences, to reduce concentrated stock positions they may already have, often through employment compensation programs, and to reduce their taxes by identifying individual stocks that can be sold at a loss and replaced with comparable stocks without violating wash sale rules.
The ability to do this requires that investors "partner with a large index provider," said Aguilar.
The minimum account size for the direct indexing platform will be $100,000, according to D.J. Tierney, who leads Schwab's personalized indexing effort and spoke in a subsequent session.
