If you were at
Schwab !mpact this week you couldn't miss the rollout of its new
SchwabInstitutional.com Web site. The new site, which Schwab first announced last month is designed to take some of the onerous tasks out of the Advisor's day. It also allows advisors to trade through the Web for the first time.
The site, which can be customized by advisors, is divided into five sections. The front page of the site offers flags alerts for advisors which they can choose themselves. The advisor has the ability to choose whether to have account alerts sent by email either once a day or when they are generated. The site also has an administration module that lets advisors control access
throughout their staff in one or multiple locations.
In the Account Forms section advisors can download and complete 36 commonly used forms that are delivered through the Web via Adobe Acrobat 4.0. The forms can also be tied into a database of the advisors clients. This means that basic information on both the advisor and the client are already filled into the form when it is downloaded.
At this time, though, the advisor must still print the form and mail it into Schwab. Technicians at the conference did report that Schwab is working on ways to deliver the forms electronically. In the meantime, however, it still needs a clients signature on hard copy.
The Quotes and Research section allows advisors to get real-time quotes and track watch lists. It also will provide investment research from sources arranged by Schwab.
Another section that will be of interest to advisors is the Schwab Center which features articles on practice management. Other sections include the Accounts section where advisors can reference information and manage their accounts and the Administration section lets them control passwords
and access.
 
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