Nearly 80 percent of Schwab clients say they’re most confident in achieving their financial goals if they’re getting some form of professional advice,* yet only a fifth of Americans currently work with a financial advisor.**

There can be a number of roadblocks or concerns when it comes to getting financial advice – lack of trust in the financial services industry, the complexity of the advisor-client relationship, or the cost to get professional guidance. In fact, more than half of people with a financial advisor say they want to understand the reasons behind investment recommendations they receive,*** and nearly three-quarters say cost is extremely/very important when it comes to getting financial advice.****

Schwab has long supported the effort to protect the interests of investors by holding our industry to a high standard: acting in a client's best interest when giving investment advice and managing and disclosing any conflicts of interest. And we’ve taken a number of actions that reflect our ongoing client-focused approach. We’ve lowered costs, including trading commissions and fund expenses and minimums, we’ve made advice and planning more accessible through our digital advisory services, we’re the only major investment firm to offer a Satisfaction Guarantee, and we’ve evolved our client-facing employees’ compensation to support our commitment to do what’s best for our clients. In addition, for more than 30 years Schwab has been a champion of the independent advisor industry, which provides fiduciary standard advice to clients.

For decades, the 401(k) industry struggled to overcome the basic challenges of getting workers to sign up, save more and diversify. People understood they were responsible for their own retirement, but inertia and uncertainty often held them back. Thanks to changes in regulations that enabled employers to implement “automatic” 401(k)s, we’ve largely solved for these challenges of getting people in the plan, getting them to increase their savings rates, and – through target date funds and managed accounts - getting them into a diversified portfolio. There’s still more to do, but having tools in place to overcome these core issues has been a game-changer for workers and their 401(k)s.