Advisory expansion at Schwab helps 3Q profits climb

Third-quarter profits grew at The Charles Schwab Corp. as the firm worked to expand its advisory services division, company officials said Tuesday. Schwab increased its profits by 17.4% to $290 million over the comparable quarter in 2012, according to a statement. The earnings reflect Schwab's continued evolution from a pioneer of discount brokerage to a provider of broader advisory services, Schwab chief executive Walt Bettinger said in the statement. Nearly half the firm's $2.15 trillion in client assets are in an advisory program, a 17% increase from last year. Schwab provides custody services for independent financial advisers in addition to its retail-brokerage and pooled-investments businesses. “These client results supported double-digit percentage increases in all three of our main revenue sources and 15% overall revenue growth versus the year-ago quarter,” Mr. Bettinger said. “Even with the continued head wind created by an interest rate environment that remains at historic lows, our third-quarter revenues surpassed all our prior quarterly results save the extraordinary spike we experienced at the height of the internet bubble.” The results helped push shares of the company ahead $1.02, or 4.63% to $23.03 on Tuesday amid a broad stock market decline. Despite the results, Schwab has suffered some setbacks. Schwab's long-awaited plan to make exchange-traded funds available to retirement plans has been delayed by undisclosed regulatory problems. On Tuesday Mr. Bettinger said the 401(k) platform “is pending resolution of a final regulatory issue.”