This week Charles Schwab and Co. announced that it was buying (“merging” with) TD Ameritrade — a firm I do business with.  But it’s also quietly moving the Schwab HQ from San Francisco to Texas.

The company seeks to remain competitive, as brokerage fees are disappearing.  Texas offers at least 15%-20% lower business costs than San Francisco — or even Nebraska, which is the current HQ of TD Ameritrade.

Along with far lower rents, Schwab will no longer be paying the SF 0.38% payroll tax and the 0.6% tax on financial service companies.  The SF Schwab employees who move with the company to Texas will no longer be paying the San Francisco CITY income tax of 1.5% (not to mention the sky-high CA state income tax).  I doubt many will be missing those levies on their paychecks.

Doubtless the San Francisco progressives are either unconcerned or delighted with Schwab’s departure.  The clueless “woke” crowd wants nothing to do with filthy lucre.  After all, it grows on trees.  Along with cell phones.

Below is an excellent DALLAS MORNING NEWS detailed article on the topic.  This “divestiture” by Schwab of San Francisco has been going on for some time.  The company has reduced the number of San Francisco Schwab employees 90% since 2000.  While it will still have some presence in SF, it appears they are scheduling an orderly, staged withdrawal from our nation’s experiment with Venezuelan policies.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/2019/11/30/schwab-is-the-latest-company-leaving-california-for-texas-and-it-wont-be-the-last-expert-says

By Dom DiFurio

5:16 PM on Nov 29, 2019

When financial services firm Charles Schwab announced its $26 billion mega-merger with TD Ameritrade, it also dropped a bombshell about relocating the combined company’s headquarters from San Francisco to North Texas.

The Dallas Morning News talked to corporate relocation site selection expert John Boyd about Schwab’s decision to make its campus under construction in Westlake the new headquarters, and why even more California companies are likely to pack up and move to the Lone Star State in the future. One study estimates 13,000 companies fled the Golden State in a nine-year period from 2008 to 2016.

It’s been rumored for a long time that Schwab may be looking to get out of California. Why would the company choose to have this move coincide with a major acquisition like TD Ameritrade?

There’s a unique driver here above and beyond Dallas’s superior business climate versus San Francisco and that’s this new era of zero commission trading.

. . .
To see the full article, go to the link above.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 30th, 2019 at 1:43 pm and is filed under Blog Posts.