Tutorials to help you manage your clients' accounts

How to open an account (advisor)

As a financial advisor, you can help make your clients’ charitable giving more strategic with a Schwab Charitable™ donor-advised fund account.

Let’s take a look at how easy it is to open an account for a client.

Everything you need is available in the Schwab Advisor Center®. Simply log in and go to Forms and Applications.

Use the drop-down menu to choose Schwab Charitable Forms, then press Apply Filters.

You’ll find the new account application at the top of the list. Select Open with Laser App or Open a PDF to view the application.

As an advisor, you automatically have view-only privileges for Schwab Charitable accounts linked to your master account.

For clients who request your help managing their charitable giving, indicate the desired level of access privileges on the application. Option A is for core accounts, and Options B and C are for professionally managed accounts.

Remember: regardless of the privileges chosen, your client needs to sign the completed application. And a minimum irrevocable contribution of $5,000 is required to open a core account.

For Professionally Managed Accounts that require a minimum initial contribution of $250,000, you'll need to complete the Schwab Charitable Investment Advisory Agreement.

And to add grant recommendation privileges to an account, your client needs to sign an Agency Agreement in addition to the application.

Any time you have questions, feel free to contact us or your regional relationship manager.

How to contribute to an account (advisor)

With a Schwab Charitable™ account, your clients have four simple, tax-smart options to make an irrevocable contribution.

Your clients can:

Transfer funds or securities from another account held at Schwab or elsewhere.

They can contribute appreciated non-cash assets, such as publicly traded stock, restricted stock, privately held interests, or real estate.

Your clients can send a check or transfer funds electronically.

Or they can consolidate their charitable accounts by requesting a grant from a donor-advised fund at another firm or from a private foundation.

You’ll want to consider the tax implications of these methods to determine what’s best for your clients’ individual needs.

Any time you have questions, feel free to contact us or your regional relationship manager.

How to invest and rebalance (advisor)

Investing in and rebalancing a Schwab Charitable™ account is simple.

With client permission, you can actively manage accounts with balances over $250,000.

Clients with core accounts can also grant you privileges to recommend and rebalance Schwab Charitable investment pools.

Here’s how: After logging in to Schwab Advisor Center®, go to More…and select Schwab Charitable Center.

If the account you want isn’t already open, you’ll need to use the Find Account dropdown menu.

Now select Rebalance Investments.

There are no fees for reallocations. Just make sure the total of all investment choices equals 100%.

Research reports on the investment pools are available for more detail.

Any time you have questions, feel free to contact us or your regional relationship manager.

How recordkeeping works (advisor)

Keeping track of your clients’ charitable giving is easy—all the records you need are online and accessible anytime.

After logging in to Schwab Charitable Center, you can find grant and contribution histories under Transactions.

Within Grant History, you can check the status of a grant and even see whether a check has cleared.

Want to analyze your client’s charitable grants? Just use the Export function.

The contribution history provides important insight during tax season, plus copies of grant award letters and contribution acknowledgements.

You’ll also find recent annual summary letters under the Documents tab.

Any time you have questions, feel free to contact us or your regional relationship manager.