Schwab's Senior Executive VP Sees Bullish, Retirement-Minded Investors

🎥 Apr 27, 2019 📺 Investopedia ⏱ 1m 👁 1485 views

We asked senior executive vice president of Charles Schwab, Jonathan Craig, to share what he sees clients focused on in today's ...

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About Jonathan Craig

Jonathan Craig, head of retail investing at Charles Schwab, appeared on NYSE TV Live on May 30, 2025, to discuss the 50th anniversary of the abolition of fixed brokerage commissions on May 1, 1975. Craig noted that Charles Schwab lowered commissions on that day and described it as part of a 50-year commitment to lowering costs for individual investors. He announced that the Charles Schwab Foundation and the Charles R. Schwab Foundation for Financial Freedom were making a $1 million donation to the Sithma Foundation to support a stock market simulation game aimed at younger investors. Craig stated that the company is focused on "ease and accessibility" for clients and emphasized the importance of combining "the best of people and technology." He reported that in the first quarter of 2025, Schwab had over 500 million logins to its website and added over a million new accounts, and that engagement with market insights had increased 40-fold. In earlier appearances, Craig discussed investor sentiment and marketing strategy. In a 2019 interview, he cited a Schwab investor sentiment study showing 45% of investors were bullish, 35% bearish, and 23% neutral, and said retirement remained the "number one financial stress" for clients. In a 2018 Forbes interview, Craig described his approach as a chief marketer, stating that marketers should be "guardians of a company's actions" rather than stewards of its words, and noted that Schwab had cut commissions in half, launched low-cost index funds, and introduced a satisfaction guarantee in 2017.

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Transcript (4 segments)

Jonathan Craig0:00

Hi, I'm Jonathan Craig. I'm a senior EVP at Charles Schwab, and I have accountability for our retail business, our advisor services business, our 401(k) business, and all of our marketing.

There's lots of things on their mind, but I'd say the general backdrop is they're pretty positive, as you can imagine after an eight-year bull market. And they're not just positive now; they're fairly bullish on the future. In fact, we just did an investor sentiment study, and what came back was 45% were bullish, 35% a little bearish, and 23% neutral. But that's a pretty high watermark for us, so they're positive.

In terms of what's on their mind, I'd say it's separated between short and long term. Maybe long term, the issue has always been: how do I protect and grow my wealth to get to and through a good retirement? Retirement is still the number one financial stress for our clients. And it's true that eight years of a bull market has helped, but it's also true that they're still concerned. I think in the short term, the number one concern is just potential volatility and maybe market correction due to some unforeseen macroeconomic risks or political risks.

What we tell clients, though, is regardless of the market or your concerns, the most important thing is just have a plan, get invested, diversified, keep your taxes and costs low, and really ignore the noise. And get a trusted partner. If you do that, you should be able to get through any market.