Schwab Mailing Addresses And More

If you are a client of Financial Planning Associates, Inc., and you need to mail a document and/or check to Schwab use one of the addresses below.

If you are sending regular US mail use this address:

Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.
P.O. Box 982603
El Paso, TX 79998

If you are sending overnight mail use this address:

Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.
1945 Northwestern Drive
El Paso, TX 79912

Regarding traditional IRA and Roth IRA contributions:

IMPORTANT: If you are mailing a contribution check for your IRA account it should be payable to:

Charles Schwab and Company FBO (Your Name) IRA #(Your Schwab Account Number)

(Ex: Charles Schwab and Company FBO Roger Jones IRA #xxxx-xxxx)

ALSO IMPORTANT: When you send an IRA contribution check to Schwab you should write the tax year for the contribution in the note section of your check. For example, if you are sending a check on April 10th of 2018 for the tax year 2017 you should write “2017 IRA contribution” in the note area.

FBO = For the Benefit Of.

If you are transferring from your employer’s 401k account to your Schwab IRA account follow these steps:

  1. Liquidate/sell your positions in your 401k account.
    1. You may be able to do this from your 401k online portal, or
    2. You may need to indicate these instructions on a form provided by your custodian or HR department, or
    3. You may contact your custodian or HR department by phone instructing them to “liquidate your positions for the purpose of transferring out.”
      1. Note: If you do not explicitly state that you are liquidating to transfer out they may liquidate to a proprietary money market fund which will not be accepted by Schwab.
  2. Inform your (former) HR department that you intend to transfer your account directly (a direct rollover) to your IRA account at Schwab and that they should write a check for the full proceeds of your account payable to Schwab. Provide your HR department with your Schwab IRA account number. (The custodian may refer to this transaction as a distribution. That’s ok as long as the check is not payable to you. It should be payable only to Schwab. This avoids taxation and withholding.)
    1. IMPORTANT: The check should not be payable to you. It should be made payable to Charles Schwab and Company FBO (for the benefit of) you, and it should include your IRA account number. For example: If you name is Jane Jones your check should be payable to Charles Schwab and Company FBO Jane Jones. And your IRA account number should be written on the check.
    2. It is possible that you will need to indicate your transfer instructions on a form specified by the custodian or HR department. In that case you should follow the instructions indicated above. If you have questions concerning the form you should confer with your HR department, or call or email our office and we will assist you.
  3. Your HR department or custodian should mail the check, payable to Schwab to one of the addresses listed at the top of this page.
    1. In some cases the HR department may give you the check to mail to Schwab. That’s ok as long as the check is payable to Schwab and not to you. You can then mail it to the address shown above.
  4. When your check is received at Schwab our office will be informed and we will proceed with investing your funds.

So, in summary:

  • Liquidate your positions in your 401k.
  • Send the check, payable to Schwab FBO you and including your IRA account number to one of the addresses listed above.