Charles Schwab Q1 ETF Assets Jump 16% From Last Year
- Assets jumped as broad equity indexes surged in 2024.
- Total assets inched up 1% from the fourth quarter as markets fell.
- Schwab's largest fund pulled in $3.8 billion during the first quarter.
Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW), the fifth-largest U.S. ETF issuer, said assets in its exchange-traded funds rose 16% since last year’s first quarter as flows into its biggest funds jumped.
Schwab, which manages 33 ETFs, said in an April 17 statement that assets in its proprietary ETFs jumped to $398.2 billion from $342.9 billion at the end of last year’s first quarter. Since the previous quarter ended, assets inched up 1% from $395 billion, the Westlake, Texas-based company said.
Assets gained year over year as broad equity indexes jumped, with the S&P 500 notching a 25% total return last year. Inflows slowed as markets dropped this year, however, as fears of recession and inflation sparked by President Donald Trump’s trade war have pushed the S&P 500 10% lower so far in 2025.
Investors were met with “an increasingly uncertain environment” in the first quarter, Schwab Chief Executive Officer Rick Wurster said in the statement.
SCHD Adds to Massive AUM
As markets tumbled in the first quarter and investors moved money into safer investments, Schwab’s largest ETF, the $64.9 billion Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD), pulled in $3.8 billion. That fund pulled in $12.1 billion since last year’s first quarter. It includes companies with 10-year histories of paying dividends, which are widely considered safer investments.
As markets became increasingly volatile during the first quarter, many investors chose to buy stock funds as prices dropped, and Schwab’s second-largest ETF, the $47.5 billion Schwab U.S. Large-Cap ETF (SCHX), pulled in $812 million. Still, that fund has dipped 10% this year.
Net purchases of ETFs at Schwab dropped 17% from the fourth quarter, falling to $63.1 billion from $76.2 billion.
Source: etf.com data
Schwab clients’ portfolios grew fatter year over year, the company said, with the average client’s assets up 15% to $2.3 million. That was mostly due to a 22% jump, to $658,588, in average holdings of ETFs, collective trust funds, and equity and bond funds.
The U.S. ETF industry’s overall inflows dipped 32% from $427 billion in last year's fourth quarter to $291 billion during the first quarter, State Street said last week, citing Morningstar Data. Still, they jumped 41% from last year’s first-quarter total of $191 billion.
