Guide to Navigating Schwab.com

Guide to Navigating Schwab.com

With the world becoming more and more digital every day, having basic computer and internet navigation skills goes a long way. In the financial world, we are seeing a bigger push to utilize online portals and emails to update and convey information as opposed to sending financial information via snail mail. Given this shift, we put together a guide to find and/or edit information in your Schwab.com portal.

Updating Personal Information

Whether you just moved, got a new phone number, or updated your email address, there are many companies and websites with whom you’ll need to update your information. Schwab is no exception. Luckily, Schwab’s portal makes it easy.

To update your personal info, log into Schwab.com and navigate to either the “Service” tab and select “My Profile” in the far left or simply select the profile icon in the top-right corner. Once there, you can click the edit button to update your contact information.

Statements and Tax Documents

Who doesn’t love tax season? Around mid-February, Schwab posts most of the necessary tax documents to your Schwab portal for easy downloading.

Once logged into Schwab.com, you can find statements and tax documents by navigating to the “Accounts” tab and selecting “Statements.” Once there, you can filter by document type and timeframe to find the documents you are looking for.

Keep in mind, your document preferences with Schwab will determine how they send statements, trade confirmations, and tax documents to you.

To view your document preferences, navigate to “Service” and select “Paperless.” On this page you can opt in or out for electronic delivery on a per-document-type basis. Alternatively, you can call Schwab at (800) 515-2157 to find out about your document preferences or to update them.

Updating Beneficiaries

Schwab has made it easier than ever to update your beneficiaries online. As a reminder, when you update your estate documents, it is always a good idea to verify your beneficiaries.

To view your beneficiaries on Schwab.com, first navigate to the “Services” tab.  Under the “My Profile” section, select “Beneficiaries.” In the “Beneficiaries” page, you can review and edit beneficiaries for your accounts. One thing to note is that if you update your beneficiaries online the changes are only effective for the account in which you updated. You will need to update them for each account that allows beneficiaries.

Additionally, you can add a “per stirpes” or “per capita” designation to your beneficiaries. These designations tell Schwab how to handle the beneficiaries’ portion of the funds if they were to predecease you. We encourage you to consult with us or an attorney before making the change to determine which (if any) designation is right for you.

Security Settings

As you know, FSA is focused on keeping your accounts secure from hackers and identity thieves. We encourage using strong, unique passwords and utilizing multi-factor authentication when available.

To either update your password or enable multi-factor authentication, you can navigate to the “Service” tab and select the “Security Center.” Once there, you can change passwords, login IDs, security questions, and add two-step verification.

Schwab.com is a very useful tool for managing account settings, updating personal information, and retrieving statements and tax documents. If you want a succinct and easy-to-understand portal to review your asset allocation, transactions, performance, etc., our FSA Client Portal is available. If you do not already have a login, please let us know.

We will cover the FSA Client Portal in a future post.

Let us know if there are any other features of Schwab.com you would like to learn more about.

 

FSA’s current written Disclosure Brochure and Privacy Notice discussing our current advisory services and fees is also available at https://fsainvest.com/disclosures/ or by calling 301-949-7300.

 

 

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