Laid off from Charles Schwab.

What Charles Schwab layoffs have meant for employees

Schwab's layoffs have come in two kinds, and if you were caught in one, it helps to know which. The merger cuts went after jobs both firms had, and Schwab told WealthManagement.com in 2021 that they mainly hit overlapping roles with little effect on client service jobs. The 2023 cut was a cost program instead, laid out in an August 2023 8-K that paired lower headcount with closing or shrinking offices to save at least $500 million a year. In San Francisco the affected positions included senior managers, managing directors and directors in advertising, business continuity, compliance and risk analysis, as SFGATE reported from the San Francisco Business Times, and Schwab planned to go from 17 office floors at 211 Main St. to six.

How much of the 2023 program went to severance shows in Schwab's 2024 annual report. Its note puts the 2023 charge for severance and related termination benefits at $292 million, trimmed by $34 million in 2024, with $200 million of that liability paid or settled during 2024. Separately, in unverified posts RIABiz quoted, laid-off staff said they'd stay employed until January 5 and then receive severance, and many looked eligible for year-end bonuses. People posting as Schwab staff said Advisor Services and Retirement Plan Services were hit hard. None of that makes losing the job any easier to take.

If you're given notice under Schwab's severance plan, restated as of January 2026, you're relieved of your duties for the notice period but keep your base salary and some benefits, though bonuses and incentive pay stop unless a bonus plan says otherwise. If Schwab asks you to keep working through part of it, the plan ties severance to doing that work to the company's satisfaction. Severance itself comes only with a signed agreement returned by the date on the notice, and that agreement can include a release of all legal claims plus non-disparagement and non-solicitation terms. If you're a participant aged 40 or over and sign it, the plan gives you seven days to revoke. If you're serving out the notice period, your paid time off keeps building until your termination date, and your Schwab benefits end by the last day of that month. If you become entitled to severance, the plan also pays a lump sum toward health coverage, figured from COBRA rates, so it's worth setting that sum against what COBRA would actually cost you. If you haven't seen the full plan document, it's worth asking for it.

Staying is its own question. If Schwab or a successor employer offers you a comparable position, the plan treats that as no job elimination and pays no severance, but it doesn't count a job as comparable if, without your consent, it moves your workplace more than 50 miles away. If you're weighing a different role inside Schwab, whether the plan would call it comparable is worth knowing first. If you come back after taking severance, a later severance would count only your years since rehire, plus the minimum for your job level.

Schwab's filings sit in our WARN tracker under Charles Schwab names, and TD Ameritrade's older ones under its own. If your job was in San Francisco or Jersey City, where the late-2023 notices went, the California and New Jersey unemployment pages cover filing a claim there. If an internal job, an outside offer and a severance agreement are all on the table at once, putting the plan's dates in one place, from the return date to the end of the notice period, makes it easier to see what each choice costs.

A sourced history of Charles Schwab layoffs

• October 2023, 5% to 6% of staff let go

  Schwab began cutting on October 30, by RIABiz's account, and put the total at 5% to 6% of its workforce, about 2,000 of 35,900 people by CNN's math.

• July 2021, sales and digital roles cut in the integration

  Sales leaders from both firms' advisor custody units were let go, along with members of Schwab's digital services team, per memos WealthManagement.com obtained. Schwab said the cuts mainly hit overlapping roles and came with re-employment help and severance benefits.

• February 2021, about 200 more integration layoffs

  Schwab notified about 200 people on February 8 that their jobs were going, a spokeswoman told Financial Planning, adding that they'd count as internal candidates for more than 1,400 open positions.

• October 2020, about 1,000 positions after the TD Ameritrade deal

  Weeks after the deal closed, Schwab told employees it was cutting about 1,000 overlapping positions, about 3% of the combined workforce, in a statement CNN quoted. Those let go could apply early for open jobs as internal candidates during a 60-day notice period.

What to do if you're laid off from Charles Schwab

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Charles Schwab's biggest hubs: Texas, California, New Jersey, Colorado. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Charles Schwab's hub states run: Texas, California, New Jersey, Colorado, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.