By Andrew Welsch

If you build brokerage offices, will investors come? Charles Schwab is about to find out as it starts adding new branches and expanding other offices. The goal, according to the brokerage firm, is better matching its bricks-and-mortar presence to its growing customer base.

Schwab, which has nearly 400 branches in the U.S., said Wednesday it is adding 16 new locations. New offices are going up in Florida, Texas, California, and other states. The company is also expanding or relocating 25 existing branches to increase capacity and optimize real estate, and is hiring more employees, including financial consultants, to staff these locations.

The company is one of the nation's largest wealth management and brokerage firms, with 37.8 million active brokerage accounts, 5.6 million workplace plan accounts, and more than $11 trillion in client assets as of Aug. 31.

That Schwab is devoting resources to in-person service might seem odd given the digital nature of life today. But Jeannie Bidner, head of branch network at Schwab, says clients want to be able to interact online and face-to-face. "We know a lot of clients are digitally focused, and we have seen a huge uptick in mobile, but clients also want to be able to connect in person," she says.

It isn't the only financial services company to devote new resources to physical locations. To expand its wealth management business, JPMorgan Chase has been hiring hundreds of financial advisors and placing them in newly opened or redesigned bank branches where they can interact with customers and deepen relationships.

Bidner says it's true that investors in general and younger investors in particular like to interact with Schwab's services online, through an app, or via Zoom. But the company's experience is that customers also prize in-person interactions when they have complex problems or reach major life events such as the birth of a child or the death of a parent. "There is just something tangible and important about being able to sit across the table from someone who can just lay it all out for you," she says.

She adds that where Schwab has branches, it experiences faster growth, and customers who have a Schwab financial consultant have higher satisfaction scores. "That is testament to customers feeling like they are meeting their goals," she says.

Real estate. Schwab's new branches are in places where the company has either been growing its customer base or where wealth is accumulating.

Although some new branch locations have yet to be announced, Schwab confirmed it will have five new branches in Florida, including in Palm Beach Gardens, Aventura, and Marco Island. It is adding locations in Monarch Beach and Manhattan Beach in Southern California as well as one in the Mission Bay area of San Francisco. It is also relocating or expanding six other offices in California. And in Texas, Schwab is adding two branches in the Austin metropolitan area.

The company's other new locations will include Boston, Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Peachtree Corner, a suburb of Atlanta. Other locations are to be determined.

California, Texas, and Florida are the nation's three most populous states, with 39 million, 29 million, and 21 million residents, respectively. Texas and Florida have also been growing rapidly in recent years. Texas in particular has attracted businesses from other states with its low corporate taxes and low state income tax. Tesla and Schwab are among the companies that have relocated from California to Texas. Schwab's headquarters is in Westlake, a suburb of Dallas.

Schwab's headquarters isn't the only thing that has changed at the wealth management company in recent years. Its acquisition in 2020 of longtime rival TD Ameritrade boosted its reach with retail investors and independent financial advisors. It has also benefited from an influx of millions of investors during the pandemic when many Americans began investing in stocks amid Covid lockdowns.

Schwab's physical expansion is somewhat overdue, Bidner says. "For the last five years, we were very focused on the integration efforts with TD Ameritrade," she says. And the company is growing. In the first half of this year, Schwab added 2.3 million new brokerage accounts and $218 billion in new assets, according to the company. Having robust digital and in-person presences is important to keep up with that growth, Bidner says. "We want to be there for our clients when they need us," she says.

Write to Andrew Welsch at andrew.welsch@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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September 17, 2025 06:00 ET (10:00 GMT)

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