The Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Charles Schwab Corporation's 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. This is Rich Fowler, Head of Investor Relations for Schwab, speaking to you from the Schwab Center in San Francisco, where we normally hold our in-person annual meetings, but are now, of course, reaching out via the Internet so that we can gather to conduct today's business while maintaining appropriate social distancing. Thank you for joining us today, and we certainly hope you're all safe and well wherever you may be. While the virtual format of this year's meeting will certainly feel different than prior years, today's agenda should provide a sense of familiarity with Chuck starting us off and walking us through the rest of the day. We will be able to take questions later on, and there's a box on your webcast console for submitting them. I'm going to quickly say thank you in advance for your patience with any technical hiccups that might arise during the course of today's meeting. The production team here at Schwab has done their usual incredible job of helping us prepare for this inaugural virtual format. But we're well aware of the famous quote about the plans not surviving their first run in with reality. So we look forward to getting through this together with you. Now without further ado, I'm honored to introduce our Founder and Chairman, Chuck Schwab.

Thank you very much, Rich, and good afternoon, shareholders. This is an unusual situation to address you this way. But hopefully, it won't go on for too long in our lives, and we'll get back to being able to see one another face-to-face. So given the situation with sheltering-at-home guidelines, we are holding our annual meeting in this virtual fashion as we all are aware. This is our 33rd annual meeting of our company, and I'm very pleased to have that. That's been, gosh, 33 years since we went public. Amazing how quickly time flies by. Our agenda today will cover the following: First, Peter Morgan, our General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, will cover the business agenda, including a number of proxy proposals; two, then we'll hear from Peter Crawford, our CFO, who will talk about the spectacular business results of 2019, just a short while ago and how things are going so far in this year. First 2 months were great, and then we've had some things to face, which we'll discuss a little bit later. After Peter's presentation, Walter Bettinger -- Walt Bettinger will provide the CEO report. He'll share his perspective on the company strategy and how we plan to execute against that strategy. Then, as usual, following all that, then Walt and I will take a few questions from those who would like to call in and be taking about those questions as we deliver our message here in the next few minutes. But first, I'd like to recognize our Board of Directors, people who work so hard for us day in, day out, month by month, committee meetings, long and hard. And every year, it seems like this stack of material gets bigger and more dense and I guess, as a result of our wonderful growing company, which we -- [ they can ] have responsible to make sure we guide it carefully. I'd like to extend a special thank you to Steve McLin who is retiring from the Board after 32 years of service. Steve was very instrumental way back when we got together with the Bank of America and he was -- had worked for the BofA, was Head of Strategy Thinking then and led to our acquisition shortly way back in 1980. And then when we spun off from BofA in 1986 and went public, many of you probably remember those times. But Steve has decided to play more golf, I think. So we have a great appreciation for all the expertise he's extended to us, his deep knowledge of the company and banking and its business throughout a large portion of the growth of our company. So Steve, thank you very, very much. We -- at our Board meeting just before this, we [ tended to receive ] a resolution of our appreciation. Thank you, again, Steve. I'd like to also introduce John Adams, member of our Board; Walt Bettinger; Joan Dea; Chris Dodds; Steve Ellis; Mark Goldfarb; Bill Haraf; Frank Herringer; Steve McLin, again; Charles Ruffel; Arun Sarin; Paula Sneed; and Roger Walther. And I want to thank personally all of you for your services in the last 12 months and looking greatly forward to our next 12 months. Three current board members are up for reelection this year: Bill Haraf, Frank Herringer and Roger Walther are up for reelection. We'll hear the results of that shortly. I would also like to make a very special acknowledgment of our management team at Schwab and our thousands of employees who together made 2019 an incredible year and have done extraordinary work really in the last few months. It's just been -- I can't thank them enough for their devotion, their commitment, their loyalty, all the things I could possibly come up with words of appreciation. Thank you to the teams. And indeed, it does take a lot of great teams here at Schwab that make things really work and function. And just I think on behalf of the Board and myself, thank you for all your great efforts. It's taken professionalism and a true grit, I think, in this environment. And now I'd like to move on to the business portion of our meeting. Peter Morgan who took over his new role as Corporate Counsel, following tragic loss of our great friend and colleague, David Garfield last year. We certainly miss David's wisdom and warmth and have welcomed Peter to that new role. Peter has been a long time executive here at Schwab, has deep understanding of all aspects of the business and our legal, regulatory requirements, all of that. And he has, I have to say, with great compliment, he has stepped into his new role without missing a beat. So thank you, Peter, and welcome to the Board meeting here.

Thank you very much, Chuck. As the first item of business, I would like to introduce our inspector of election and our independent auditors. The Board of Directors appointed the inspector of election to conduct the voting for this meeting. This year, our inspector of election is Equiniti Trust Company, a representative of Equiniti, Bradley Kreager, is with us today. Mr. Kreager has filed an oath of inspector with me. He also has informed me that based on a preliminary count, we have a quorum for this meeting because more than 90% of the company's approximately 1.3 billion shares that are entitled to vote are represented by proxy at this meeting. Our independent auditors are Deloitte & Touche LLP. Ms. Carol Larson of Deloitte & Touche is here at the meeting and will be happy to respond to your questions during the questions-and-answer period. Polls are now open for voting on the proposals. If you are a stockholder as of March 16 of this year and have not returned your proxy card, voted by telephone or voted on the Internet or would like to change the instructions in your proxy card or your telephone or Internet vote, you may vote at this time. For those of you attending our virtual meeting, you may click on the Vote Now button on the webcast console to cast your ballot. Now I would like to present the 5 proposals we are asking stockholders to vote on this year. The first proposal is to elect 3 directors. This year, William S. Haraf, Frank C. Herringer and Roger O. Walther have been nominated for election to the Board of Directors. The second proposal is to ratify the selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent auditors. The third proposal is for advisory approval of named executive officer compensation. The fourth proposal is for approval of the 2013 stock incentive plan as amended and restated. The fifth proposal is for approval of the amended and restated bylaws to adopt proxy access. The Board of Directors has recommended that you vote in favor of each of the proposals to elect directors, ratify the independent auditors, provide advisory approval of named executive compensation, approve the 2013 stock incentive plan as amended and restated, and approve the amended and restated bylaws to adopt proxy access. Each of these proposals is described in the company's 2020 proxy statement. If you would like to review our 2020 proxy statement, you can review it online at www.aboutschwab.com. We also have been notified that stockholders intend to present 2 proposals for your consideration at this meeting. Yumi Narita, representing the New York City Employees Retirement System and the New York City Teachers' Retirement System will present the first stockholder proposal requesting annual disclosure of EEO-1 data. Ms. Narita, will you please present the proposal?

My name is Yumi Narita, and I'm here on behalf of the New York City Comptroller, Scott M. Stringer and 2 of the 5 New York City Pension Funds. I'm pleased to introduce the fund's proposal, proposal #6, requesting that the company discloses EEO-1 data that break down its workforce by race and gender, something the company currently provides to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. I'd like to start out by commending Charles Schwab on disclosing more information on their workforce this year. We would like, however, to push the company a little further in terms of transparency. According to SASB, diversity and inclusion is a metric which is material for your industry. And your peers, such as T. Rowe Price and BoNY, disclose their EEO-1 data, along with a growing list of companies in the financial industry. We understand that the company is preserving the baseline for future benchmarking until the proposed acquisition of TD Ameritrade is completed. In light of this, we'd like to highlight some improvements the company might make going forward when considering diversity and inclusion holistically. We have voted against the Nominating and Governance Committee of Schwab historically for lack of gender diversity. We would note that since 2015, this Board has been made up of less than 16% women. The Spencer Stuart Board index notes that 26% of all S&P 500 directors are now women. Furthermore, we found that Schwab trails in comparison to the Board of TD Ameritrade and, in fact, has the lowest percentage of all 23 companies that it has disclosed as its peers in the proxy. One of your peer's boards has female representation at 38%, and the median percentage of female representation on these boards is 29%. We believe that diversity is something that begins at the top, and thinking strategically about Board composition might be another way in which Schwab can show that action matter more than words. We also encourage the company to improve disclosure of ethnic or racial minorities on the Board. In terms of employee data, we would like to see: One, specific ethnic representation disclosed across all job categories; and two, actual numbers provided for the workforce as opposed to just percentages. Bank of America is a good example for such disclosure. Actual numbers would be more meaningful for investors as we can analyze trends and get a window into Schwab's progress on its inclusion efforts. Finally, it's unclear in reviewing the governance documents on the website if any specific committee or if the full Board is responsible for human capital management, and in particular, the oversight of diversity and inclusion initiatives at Schwab. As long-term investors, we believe that directors are our fiduciaries in the boardroom. And we would like to better understand who on the Board is accountable for oversight of Schwab employees. We appreciate the engagement that we have had with the company management this year on this issue. We urge Charles Schwab to recognize the increasing support for the proposal over time and to reveal its EEO-1 data for the benefit of its investors, its clients and its employees. Thank you. I'm finished presenting the stockholder proposal.

Thank you. Kate Monahan, representing Friends Fiduciary Corporation, will present the second stockholder proposal requesting disclosure of lobbying policy, procedures and oversight, lobbying expenditures and participation in organizations engaged in lobbying. Ms. Monahan, will you please present the proposal?

Thank you, Mr. Morgan. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the Board and fellow shareowners. My name is Kate Monahan, and I'm the shareholder engagement manager at Friends Fiduciary Corporation, and we are long-term shareholders of Charles Schwab. I hereby move proposal 7 asking our company to provide a report on its state and federal lobbying expenditures and its indirect funding of lobbying for trade associations and other nonprofits. Company transparency and accountability are in the best interest of Charles Schwab shareholders. This proposal would allow shareholders to evaluate lobbying spending and ensure that sufficient internal accountability structures are in place to manage and minimize risk. Our proposal asks Schwab to disclose its memberships in and payments to trade associations, including any portion used for lobbying. Schwab does not disclose its memberships and/or payments to trade associations or the amounts used for lobbying, and these amounts can be quite large. For example, Schwab serves on the Board of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, which spent over $58 million on lobbying from 2010 to 2018. And Schwab previously served on the Board of the Chamber of Commerce, which has spent over $1.5 billion on lobbying since 1998. We also do not know Schwab's process for evaluating the potential reputational risks posed by misalignment of the company's policy positions with the positions of its trade associations. In the midst of this global health crisis, the Chamber of Commerce has received negative scrutiny for its lobbying against the full use of the Defense Production Act to increase production of necessary medical equipment even as organizations like the American Medical Association have called for its use to ensure health care workers have the protective equipments they need. Proxy adviser ISS supports this proposal, noting that Schwab's overall lobbying disclosure is not sufficiently transparent. Shareowners need complete disclosure to be able to evaluate the use of corporate assets for lobbying and any risk that spending can pose. The company could easily and inexpensively provide this information. We urge shareowners to vote for proposal 7. I'm finished presenting the stockholder proposal.

Thank you. The Board of Directors has recommended that you vote against these stockholder proposals. The statements against these proposals are contained in the 2020 proxy statement. If you are participating in the virtual annual meeting, please click on the Vote Now button to cast your ballot electronically through the Internet at this time. If you have completed a ballot during the meeting, your vote will be counted at the end of the meeting and reflected in the final report of the inspector of election and in the minutes of the annual meeting. [Voting]

The polls are now closed. The inspector of election has completed a preliminary count of the proxies that were voted during the weeks leading up to this meeting. The preliminary count shows that more than 88% of the shares voting on the proposal and present at the meeting by proxy have been voted in favor of each of William S. Haraf, Frank C. Herringer and Roger O. Walther, and they have been elected to the Board of Directors. More than 94% of the shares voting on the proposal and present at the meeting by proxy have been voted in favor of the ratification of the selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent auditors, and that proposal has been approved. More than 93% of the shares voting on the proposal and present at the meeting by proxy have been voted in favor of the advisory approval of named executive officer compensation, and that proposal has been approved. More than 96% of the shares voting on the proposal and present at the meeting by proxy have been voted in favor of the approval of the 2013 stock incentive plan as amended and restated, and that proposal has been approved. Less than 75% of outstanding shares have been voted in favor of the approval of the amended and restated bylaws to adopt proxy access. That proposal requires 80% of all outstanding shares voting in favor for approval, and it has been defeated. Less than 43% of the shares voting on the proposal and present at the meeting by proxy have been voted in favor of the approval of the stockholder proposal requesting annual disclosure of EEO-1 data, and that proposal has been defeated. Less than 35% of the shares voting on the proposal and present at the meeting by proxy have been voted in favor of approval of the stockholder proposal requesting disclosure of lobbying policy, procedures and oversight, lobbying expenditures and participation in organizations engaged in lobbying, and that proposal has been defeated. This adjourns the business portion of the meeting. Thank you very much for your attention. We will now hear from our Chief Financial Officer, Peter Crawford.

All right. Well, thank you very much, Peter. It is always a privilege for me to be able to speak to our stockholders. So it certainly feels a little different sitting in this relatively large auditorium, sparsely populated large auditorium this year. What's also different this year is that we have not 1, but 2 pages of forward-looking statements, but the meaning is the same, which is to remind all of you that Walt and I will be communicating our thoughts on the future. And of course, the future is inherently uncertain. So please check in and review our periodic updates, including our quarterly webcast, to make sure you have the latest information and perspective on the company. But before we talk about the future, let's talk about the past and specifically 2019, which frankly feels like a lifetime ago. It was certainly an eventful and interesting year, highlighted by our 2 groundbreaking acquisitions and our decision to eliminate online equity commissions. But amidst all that, we delivered record financial results, which Chuck aptly described as spectacular financial results last year in spite of an environment that was generally pretty challenging for our business model. Now 1 year ago today, I was up on stage sharing our expectation for last year. And we discussed a range of possible outcomes, reflecting different scenarios regarding the extent to which our clients would continue sorting their transaction versus investment cash and how that would translate into balance sheet growth. They both were aligned with market expectations at the time for a continuation of the Fed's tightening of monetary policy as well as modest market appreciation, relatively flat longer-term rates and a slight increase in trading activity or DARTs. On balance, the year unfold in a way that was more challenging for our business model. Though the equity markets were up nearly 30%, the Fed reversed course quickly and dramatically, cutting rates 3x during the year. Longer-term rates finished the year a lot lower than where they started. And paradoxically, despite the strong equity markets, investors remained apprehensive, which means measures of engagements, such as DARTs, were a bit softer. And finally, our balance sheet ended the year towards the upper end of our range as sorting continued, albeit at a slowing pace, while clients were net sellers of equities. Interest rate headwinds clearly impacted our top line revenue, but by effectively managing the factors in our control, we're able to deliver bottom line results generally aligned with the expectations we set. Revenue growth of 6% was just shy of the range we communicated as the interest rates declines were too much to overcome. But we took steps to trim our spending plans, keeping expense growth to 5%, below the range we communicated despite some onetime items, severance and integration costs, which contribute to about 1/3 of the growth. In doing so, we delivered a pretax margin of roughly 45% and $2.67 of EPS, a 9% increase from the previous year. At Schwab, we try not to put an undue focus on the day-to-day movements of the stock price, recognizing that it's influenced by a number of factors outside of our control. But of course, we're pleased that our stockholders have been rewarded with a compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, in the stock price of roughly 10% from December 2014 to December 2019. What is more in our control is our financial performance. And over the last 4 years, we are quite gratified by the dramatic improvement in those results, with earnings per share up 160% between 2015 and 2019, and a return on equity, or ROE, increasing from 12% to 19%. Now as we turn the page from 2019 to 2020, the environment has clearly shifted a lot as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. While we have very resilient business model by driving strong business momentum and our confidence will emerge from this crisis stronger than when it started, we are not immune to the financial pressures around us. With the Fed having cut rates by 150 basis points in the first quarter and equity markets down, we faced some revenue headwinds, which began to be reflected in our first quarter results. Overall revenue fell 4% year-over-year in Q1, mostly due to a 6% decline in net interest revenue due to much lower rates across the curve. Asset management and admin fees were up 10% year-over-year due to an increase in advised assets and purchased money fund balances. Trading was down 13% year-over-year as daily average trading nearly doubled from a year ago, but the commission per revenue trade declined. Expenses were up roughly 8%, but that would have been only roughly 3% without the acquisition and integration expenses for our various acquisitions that are underway, USAA, TD Ameritrade and most recently, Wasmer Schroeder, as well as COVID-19-related spending on our employees. With revenue down and expenses up, our pretax margin declined to roughly 40% or 42.5% before the $64 million in unusual items I just referenced. And our return on equity declined to about 14%. Note, however, that 2 percentage points of that ROE decline from the prior quarter was due to a $4 billion increase in GAAP equity resulting from mark-to-market gains in our available-for-sale portfolio. And then another point related to the unusual expenses I just mentioned. Turning to our attention to the rest of 2020, a challenging year thus far, but one in which we expect to be able to deliver -- continue producing very strong organic growth and solid financial performance. Our scenario for the year starts with some basic assumptions: relatively stable interest rates through the rest of the year, average market appreciation and a return of trading activity closer to historical levels versus the relatively torrid pace we saw in the first quarter. The big variable in this scenario, as with the last scenarios we shared last year, is the amount of balance sheet growth from here through the end of the year. Do clients continue selling out of fixed income and equities? Or does that stabilize? Depending on the answer to that question, we can see balance sheet growth of 30% to 40% over the course of the year. And based on what happens with the balance sheet, we'd expect revenue comps to be somewhere in the minus 4% to minus 7% range. Our expectation is that year-over-year expense growth will be somewhere in the 4.5% to 5.5% range, excluding again, TD Ameritrade acquisition and integration costs. And that would lead to pretax margins of at least 38%. Clearly, below where we've been in the last few years, but a lot better than the shadow of the financial crisis. And I hope you'd agree quite healthy under the circumstances. One of the dynamics that makes our business model more resilient is that quite often when equity markets fall, our clients increase their allocations to cash. And when interest rates fall, the portion of that cash that stays on our balance sheet often tends to increase. It's an internal hedge, if you will, in our business model. We saw that happen during the financial crisis, and we saw it happen again in the first quarter of this year. And that cash tends to stick on the balance sheet until interest rates increase or we see a much more optimistic shift in investor sentiment. We cannot control the environment, of course, but we can mostly control our spending levels. We have communicated to clients and employees that we do not plan to do any layoffs related to COVID-19 or the resulting financial turbulence. We are driving strong organic growth. We have a lot of momentum right now, which creates higher demands on resources. Our clients are highly engaged, which, despite the tremendous progress on digital adoption, increases the burden on our people and systems. And we have some really important initiatives that we want to invest in. The integration of USAA and TD Ameritrade, our digital transformation work, application modernization to name a few. That being said, we'd expect core expense growth rate of roughly 2.5% to 3.5% for the year or 5.5% to -- sorry, 4.5% to 5.5% when you include all the onetime items. Now last but certainly not least, let's turn our attention to capital. We came into the year with capital levels above our operating objective, which itself is far above the regulatory minimum. The dramatic growth in the balance sheet has reduced those capital levels. We recently issued $2.5 billion of preferred equity, which will be helpful in funding both the purchase price for the USAA acquisition and supporting the client cash balances that we expect to migrate over at conversion. Even so, we could find our Tier 1 leverage ratio around the 6% range post USAA, below our operating objective of 6.75% to 7%. We're comfortable with that. And it is still well above the regulatory minimum for the consolidated company. The Fed has encouraged banks generally and us individually to utilize our capital buffers. That's why you maintain them in good time. So you can utilize them during stressed environments. Now due to restrictions related to the TD Ameritrade acquisitions, we already faced limitations on our ability to buy back stock. So that's not really a factor anyway. And of course, we'll continue to pay our $0.18 quarterly dividend. Let me close with a few thoughts. This is clearly a very challenging environment for the world and a very challenging environment for this company. At the same time, that record low interest rates put some strains on our top line revenue, our clients and our employees need us more than ever. We're not blind to these near-term pressures, but nor are we intimidated by them. We have a strategy that is working and a positioning in the market that is clearly resonating with investors. And what's going to help us get through this crisis are the same attributes that have made us successful in the past: our focus on clients, the talent and dedication of our employees, the discipline with which we manage expenses and capital and our long-term orientation. That's how even as we work to overcome the near-term hurdles presented by this crisis, we are confidently facing the future as well. And with that, let me turn it over to Walt to talk more at a strategic level and also about our operating results and priorities. Walt?

Thank you, Peter. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks so much for joining us in this unique format, our first virtual annual stockholders meeting. This is actually my 12th opportunity to have the honor as CEO to speak to all of you, our fellows -- my fellow stockholders. So much has changed since we were together last May, certainly, some within our control and much outside of our control. But during these times, nothing has really changed in terms of our focus on serving our valued clients, protecting the safety of our employees and building long-term stockholder value. Our strategy which is based on through client size and our execution of the strategy via the virtuous cycle has been at work, and we've delivered record client results during these most difficult times. I'd like to start by taking a quick look back at 2019, and then focusing on how 2020 is shaping up. 2019 will go down as a special year for Schwab, our clients and all of you, my fellow stockholders. In addition to seeing client assets with us grow to exceed $4 trillion, we generated record earnings while continuing our long-term approach of delivering ever better value to our clients. In the fourth quarter, we eliminated web and mobile equity and ETF commissions for all of our clients, removing the last barrier to opening up investing for everyone. In addition, in the second half of last year, we announced 2 major acquisitions. First, in July, we announced we would be acquiring the wealth management and investment brokerage business of USAA, one of the premier service-oriented companies in the country. And then in November, we announced the planned acquisition of TD Ameritrade. As expected, this acquisition is undergoing review by the Department of Justice, and we are responding to their questions. We remain optimistic that we will receive approval in time for a second half of 2020 closing. Once completed, the combined company operating under the Charles Schwab brand name would serve approximately 20 million investor and banking accounts and approximately $5 trillion in client assets. We believe that the long-term benefits of this acquisition will be apparent to the clients we serve as well as our stockholders as we deliver quality investing platforms serving our retail and investment adviser clients of all sizes. $212 billion of core net new assets in 2019, followed on by $73 billion of core net new assets in Q1. In some ways, as I looked at this slide, it almost felt like there was nothing else for me to say. Certainly, Q1 of 2020 was a record for Schwab. And frankly, an astonishing number when compared to any of our publicly traded competitors in brokerage, investment services or asset management to issue audited metrics to the public markets. But I think what makes this accomplishment all the more remarkable is that typically, in times of market stress, investors retreat from investing, and we see net new assets and new accounts soften. Although this might still play out in the coming months, through the first quarter, we saw the opposite with investors turning to Schwab, and we've been there to support them. Clients engaged with us at levels that we have never seen before. In addition to opening a record number of new brokerage and investment accounts, we experienced high levels of phone calls and digital engagement as investors turn to us for help navigating the equity market decline and the collapsing interest rates. And during these times, we continued our track record of serving clients in a manner that is consistently recognized by independent third parties. Earlier this year, we were recognized as #1 by J.D. Power for self-directed investors, investing on their own; #1 by J.D. Power for Direct Banking; and #2 by J.D. Power for self-directed investors seeking guidance, following a single point behind Vanguard on a 1,000-point scale. I guess the optimist in me calls that a tie. And although I think we all recognize that third-party recognition is most helpful from a marketing standpoint, our superior organic growth is a result of a combination of great value, high-quality service, consistent availability, trustworthy brand, fundamentally our no trade-offs approach to delighting clients. Critically, we achieved these results while protecting the safety and health of our employees and also supporting them with special financial recognition, no cost to COVID-19 testing and other efforts designed to support them during this crisis. Caring for our clients begins with caring for our employees. And make no mistake, our employees care deeply about serving our clients. They've demonstrated exceptional commitment and dedication throughout this crisis and the success we have enjoyed with clients wouldn't be possible without their collective service mentality. Transitioning from the discussion of near-term issues to longer-term opportunities, there are 3 key strategic priorities that we think will make a big difference for our clients and stockholders: Driving greater scale and efficiency throughout our business, capturing monetization opportunities beyond net interest revenue and creating targeted solutions for key segments of our client base with a near-term focus on high net worth investors. Our technology investments are paying off with an over 90% straight-through processing rate for key service and operational areas like trading, settlement and custody. And our technology systems capability and capacity to manage high volumes of trades was validated with a doubling of trades relative to the prior fourth quarters. We announced the pending acquisition of Wasmer Schroeder, a high-quality fixed income manager based out of Naples, Florida. Wasmer is known throughout the industry as a premier bond manager as evidenced by their historical placement on the recommendation platform of a number of our competitors. Wasmer will help us better serve clients with quality, low-cost solutions as well as contribute to asset management revenue growth. And our recently announced acquisition of Motif's technology, patents and intellectual property will contribute to our efforts to delivering modern investing experiences for investors, ranging from theme-based investing and trading to direct indexing. Many of the key professionals from Motif will also be joining Schwab in helping design and build these key capabilities. Our client segmentation efforts were also successful in Q1 as we continued growing our mortgage lending offering building deeper relationships with many of our investor clients. This capability is key as many of our major banking competitors try to leverage low rate lending solutions by linking them to the transfer of investable assets. So by offering competitive lending programs to these same clients, these assets tend to stay at Schwab. The 3 company acquisitions we've announced remain on track, with USAA scheduled to close in late Q2 or early Q3 of this year. On TD Ameritrade, we are as excited as ever about the prospects of bringing our 2 great companies together to better serve clients of all types and sizes. As I mentioned earlier, the Department of Justice continues their responsible and thorough review of the transaction, and we continue to provide them information to perform that review. We remain optimistic about the eventual approval of the transaction, given the substantial benefits to consumers, both retail and on the investment adviser side. And we expect the Wasmer Schroeder transaction to close in midyear, again offering our fixed income clients a level of exceptional professional management. So as we meet today virtually in the midst of this pandemic crisis, I want to assure my fellow stockholders that our time-tested strategy through client size is proving once again to pass the test these unpredictable markets have presented. We operate with our 5 guiding principles, providing clear direction and focus for our company and our employees. And we remain on offense with our efforts with a clear recognition that when times seem darkest is when the best companies' actions create the foundation for long-term success. So in closing, I'd just like to restate 4 key points: first, our strategy is working, and it remains consistent; second, our execution is second to none and was illustrated by our client metrics during the volatile first quarter; third, our employees are performing incredibly well during this pandemic, while management has implemented numerous efforts to ensure their safety and health; and last, but certainly not least, throughout, we remain on offense. Building a world-class company serving millions of clients with the staying power to thrive through the most challenging times. So Rich, let me turn it back over to you for an opportunity to answer questions from our stockholders.

Okay. Thanks, Walt. All right, everyone. We have reached the final segment of today's meeting, Q&A session with Chuck and Walt. [Operator Instructions] We do have a couple of questions ready to go. So let's dive in. I think the first one is for Chuck. A number of folks have expressed interest in your perspectives on the current environment. So would you start us off with your thoughts on working through these challenging times from the standpoint of both the investors we serve and the company itself?

Sure, Rich, and thanks, Walt. That was a great presentation you gave to the shareholders, gives me great confidence that we have lots of wonderful things in our future. As we are now in the throes of dealing with another setback, which we had sort of like in 2009 to 2010, the financial crisis, and many more that have been sort of entered in my career over the last 40-some years, I just have this great deep down belief that our economy will take on almost anything and through unbelievable ingenuity of free enterprise, we'll come up with solutions. We have -- certainly as a group of people in America, we have the tenacity and we have the creativity to deal and handle and come up with solutions that will put us back in full control. Right now, we're seeing things, improvements coming along. We've taken care of the curve, we think, for the -- which was very important. And now we're getting back to work again. People are ready to go. It's just a matter of having the gates open up. And I think that will be -- it's happening slowly, state by state, having their own different strategies and so forth. But there's no question there are 6 million small business people ready and raring to go, open their doors up as fast as they possibly can and get back to some level of normal life. Yes, it's going to take probably longer than we all had hoped for. It'll probably take a longer time. It won't be just a simple V. It will be a little bit longer. But I think we have the persistence and the confidence to do that. And so I'm very optimistic, and we have plan on a lot of hard work. And I know we're all up to that. Rich, I'll turn it back to you.

All right. Thank you, Chuck. Next one is for Walt, asking where we see the greatest opportunities for growth going forward.

Thanks, Rich. Ultimately, we're in the business of trust. Clients trust us with their hard-earned money. They trust us to offer them the tools to manage it themselves, sometimes to help the management, sometimes sort of an independent adviser who helps to manage it, but it revolves around operating in a trustworthy manner. So as a result, the greatest opportunity for growth always revolves around doing right by our clients, by operating under the golden rule. And in doing so, we create sustainable competitive advantage, and that leads to organic growth. Now if I were to think about it more tactically, the Schwab of today is able to serve a wide variety of investors from those who are just starting out to people who've invested their whole lives and are now using those accumulated assets for income later in life stage. So everyone in between, from those with modest means to individuals with ultra-high net worth. So our growth opportunities run across the spectrum. We're a place for investors of every type. A couple of quick examples. We recently introduced Schwab Stock Slices, a service that allows an investor to buy as little as $5 of any S&P 500 stock, all for a 0 commission. I'm personally excited to see what this can do to help engage younger investors who we need to encourage them to be investors, be excited about the economy and what investing can do for them. And of course, all the things we're doing in digital and mobile technology are important there, too. And at the other end of the spectrum, the population of investors who might be more in retirement or looking to build income, we've introduced services like our Intelligent Income program that shows great promise in helping investors convert assets into income that is deposited into their checkbook. So there's opportunities across that spectrum. Rich, let me go back to you.

Thank you. I think the next one, Walt, we'll stick with you for -- coming from a stockholder. We used to make, well say, more money when people traded more. Now perhaps not so much after our recent price cuts. How much does it cost us now when a customer executes that online equity trade to help us understand these earnings implications of changes in trading volume?

Who's that question directed towards?

That would be for Walt.

So I think it's less an issue of what it costs us to process a trade because that number is very small given the enormous number of trades that we process. It's really about the overall relationship with the client. Whereas 25 or 30 years ago, trading made up a very significant part of our revenue at Schwab. As recently as a year ago, that number was well under 10% of our overall revenue. So I think our emphasis is on building trust-based relationships with all types of investors. And I think the move to the 0 commissions for web and mobile equity and ETF trades is really fulfilling the vision that Chuck had when he started the company 40-plus years ago, and that is to open up investing to everyone, open up the opportunities to invest to everyone. And by going to that 0 commission, it's removed that last barrier. The modest amount it costs us to process a trade pales in comparison to the opportunity to build a lifelong relationship, serving an investor, helping them achieve their goals and earning a little bit of money along the way.

All right. Thank you. Okay. Chuck, this next question is for you. This comes from one of our younger stockholders whom we have met. [ Masai ] is checking in with us, and sorry he can't be with us in person. And Chuck, he's wondering if with the advent of the pandemic that there -- are any significant changes or impacts on the company's strategy or longer-term prospects that might weigh on the value of the company, at least temporarily?

Well, [ Masai ], who is one of our young investors and the son of one of our couples who are very good customers of Schwab. And thanks for coming again to our virtual meeting this year. I think the company itself is here, of course, at all times and has right on through the pandemic issues in the beginning to where we are today and hopefully coming out of it. We're here to help our clients and have been, and as Walt mentioned earlier on, people -- many people have really gotten engaged even more so because I think they've had more time on their hands in the last few months to look at their portfolios and think about their investing, think about the decisions they need to make for their long-term benefits, whether it's retirement or buying another home or whatever the case may be for them individually. So Schwab is here 24 hours a day to help people, even with our branches in a closed situation, but we're open through the web. We're open through the telephone, our call centers, we're open all the time to our clients. And as you know, most of our employees are now operating virtually also, by 95% of them working through their homes, which has been a great capability of Schwab, given the fact that we invested so much money over the years in technology. And so we're here and ready and we'll take on any environment. I think we'll all be happier when it gets to be an improved environment. But I think your long-term view of Schwab, I think, can be looked at with great optimism, that we're ready, will enable to be here exactly when our customer needs us.

Okay. Thank you, Chuck. All right. This will be our last question for the session. And I think Walt, I'll ask you to take the lead on this. How did Schwab arrive at the decision to acquire TD Ameritrade?

Thanks, Rich. This transaction is squarely in line with our long-term strategy. The acquisition enables us to continue to add scale. On top of our record-setting organic growth rate, it would add approximately 12 million client accounts, over $1 trillion in client assets, $5 billion in annual revenue, at least those were numbers as of the date of the announcement. I would expect that, that added scale is going to lead to lower operating expenses for our company, which helps us fund enhanced client experience capabilities, value for clients, improve our reach and also, of course, further our financial success to reward our stockholders. It's really the virtuous cycle at work. Both companies, as I mentioned, were fully cooperating with the Department of Justice and regulators in their thorough and professional review of the transaction. And again, we remain confident that it's on track to close in the second half of this year. Chuck, anything you might want to add to...

I just want to reaffirm Walt's view on this that with this improved scale that we're anticipating with the acquisition, it will lead to certainly the efficiency he had mentioned, but to me, it means we can afford new services that we have not offered to date, and we'll be able to do so, I think, and that expanded investment that we'll be making in technology will add to more service, more capabilities for our clients. And that's really what we're about. And as Walt talks about our virtuous cycle, this will only just enhance that whole thought process.

All right. Thank you. So Walt, do you have any final thoughts for us before we close out?

Sure. I'd just like to thank all of you for participating in our 2020 Virtual Annual Stockholders Meeting. Although we weren't able to get together in person this year, I am confident that we are all together when it comes to our vision at Schwab to be the most trusted leader in investment services. As stockholders, you have my commitment, the commitment of the Board, the commitment of the management and all of our dedicated employees to continue striving toward that purpose and the opportunities for growth it creates. So thank you again for joining us.

And that concludes our 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Please stay well, everyone.