Schwab's October Asset Flows Plummet

By Janet Levaux

News November 14, 2023 at 12:20 PM

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Charles Schwab's net new asset flows for October plummeted 82% from last year and 88% from September to $5 billion.

The drop, the firm says, is due to "expected attrition from former [TD] Ameritrade clients, as well as delayed tax disbursements by clients in certain states such as California."

Net new assets for "core" accounts, which exclude those that originally came from Ameritrade clients, were $11.3 billion for October. This is down 73% from a year ago and 5% from last month.

Overall, total client assets stood at $7.65 trillion as of Oct. 31, up 9% from October 2022 and down 2% from September. Assets in Advisor Services accounts were $3.38 trillion.

The firm just trimmed about 5% of its workforce, letting go roughly 2,000 employees.

See: Here's Why Schwab Continues to Lose Assets

Client cash on the balance sheet plus bank deposit account balances, or so-called transactional sweep cash, totaled $397.9 billion as of Oct. 31, down 35% from a year ago and 2% from the prior month.

"Client tax disbursements and seasonal advisory fee payments influenced the October trend," the firm said. It is now breaking out more details on client cash in a new monthly supplement.

The stock, down 32% year to date, traded up 3% on Tuesday as of 12 p.m. in New York.

(Credit: Chris Nicholls/ALM; Adobe Stock)

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