Frequently Asked Questions
We are committed to making this custodial transition to Schwab as smooth as possible for our clients. Below you’ll find answers to a few common questions, and we encourage you to reach out to your North Berkeley advisor team with any additional questions.
We’ll prepare most paperwork for you. Your role will be to review and sign digital forms via DocuSign. Your advisor will guide you and will always be available for questions.
A custodian is the financial institution that holds and safeguards your investment accounts, processes transactions, and provides reporting – much like a bank. While our North Berkeley team manages your investment strategy and planning, the custodian is the secure home for your assets.
The two primary reasons to move to Schwab are better pricing for our clients and more streamlined client access. In particular, the annual costs for clients were going to increase significantly at Pershing since they are changing their pricing model; with Schwab we will maintain comparable pricing for some transactions and reduce transactional costs in other instances.
That isn’t a problem, and we can work with you to make sure the transition is smooth and works around your travel. Let us know your travel dates, and our team can adjust the timing of the transfer as needed so that you don’t have to stress about this while traveling.
Yes. Your advisor team will be fully available throughout the transition. This includes questions about the transition as well as any regular financial planning or portfolio support that is needed during this time.
If you receive regular income distributions, we will work with you to make sure these are uninterrupted.
No. The move to Schwab will have no tax impact; the entire transfer is tax-free. Each account will move from Pershing to Schwab “as-is”, with nothing being bought or sold, and no effect on your taxes.
In terms of tax reporting, you will receive regular year-end tax documents from Schwab, just like you did from Pershing. The only important note is that many accounts will have two 1099s for 2025, one from each custodian. We will send a reminder about this ahead of tax season, and our team will be available to help with gathering those tax documents.
There will be no change to your North Berkeley management fees. However, the fees our clients pay to the custodian for trading costs were going to increase significantly at Pershing, so we are making this shift to Schwab in order to maintain the lowest possible pricing for our clients – which will be similar to or lower than the current costs at Pershing.
The primary online view will still be our North Berkeley Client Portal powered by Tamarac, and the link and login info will not be changing. In addition, clients will also have access to the Schwab website and app to view their accounts or retrieve documents.
One improvement we are excited to share is that clients will no longer have to log into two different websites – we will have the ability to link the Schwab website to our Tamarac portal via single sign-on, so once you log into your portal, you’ll be able to click a button and go to the Schwab website without needing to login again.
Lastly, we will note that Tamarac is making some updates to their portals and we’re currently exploring our options within the new, more robust portal platform for expanded views and information. Our clients will likely see some upgrades to their client portal later this year, but all login information will remain exactly the same so no action will be needed from clients.