Schwab Posts Record '14 Profits, Sales; New Client Assets Hit $124.8 Billion

Recounting the company’s performance in 2014, Bettinger said Schwab is “positioned for more innovation in 2015 as we continue our work to make quality help and advice available to a broad spectrum of investors.” In particular, Bettinger mentioned the planned first quarter launch of Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, the company’s foray into the automated advice, or robo-advisor, space. 

In the earnings release, CFO Joe Martinetto lauded Schwab’s expense controls, which allowed the company to turn “10% client asset growth into 11% revenue growth, and then produced 23% earnings growth and a comparable level of EPS growth.”

Asset management and administration fees grew 9% to a record $2.5 billion during the year, he reported, and while trading revenue was flat, “overall revenue growth and careful expense management enabled us to increase our investment in client-related projects by 9% to a record $188 million while still achieving a 350-plus basis point improvement in our pre-tax profit margin,” to 34.9% for the year.

The company’s financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2014 included two non-recurring items resulting in $20 million in net proceeds related to Schwab’s non-agency residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) portfolio, held since the financial crisis at Schwab Bank,.

In written commentary on those items, CFO Martinetto said they came from “net litigation proceeds of approximately $28 million and net losses of $8 million from selling securities totaling approximately $500 million.

Taken together, these items increased pre-tax income by approximately $20 million, or $.01 per share. He said Schwab will continue to “pursue vigorously” its legal claims on those securities, but said there is “limited remaining downside” on the remaining $15 million in RMBS, which he said the company has marked to market and recorded a $0.6 million charge in 2014’s fourth quarter.