AMERICAN EXPRESS STARTS SCHWAB-STYLE BROKERAGE.Byline: Saul Hansell The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times Moving to compete with Charles Schwab Charles Schwab can refer to:
An open-end investment company whose shares are sold without a sales charge. There can be other distribution charges, however, such as Article 12B-1 fees. A true no-load fund has neither a sales charge nor a distribution fee. and a discount stock brokerage service to be offered by mail, telephone and soon computer. The program is the first component of a plan to offer insurance, lending and full-service banking through an umbrella account known as American Express Financial Direct, which is meant to serve different customers than those of its full-service American Express Financial Advisors unit. To win notice in what is a very crowded marketplace, American Express is matching some of the lowest prices in the industry. Active traders will pay a flat commission of $49 on stock trades. Some management fees will be waived for money market fund balances of more than $15,000, increasing the yield by as much as eight-tenths of 1 percent. And the company will offer mutual funds with no sales load Sales load See: Sales charge sales load See load. from several companies, including a new family of American Express funds. ``The American Express brand is a wonderful tool, but we have to link it with valuable offers,'' said William J. Heron Jr., the president of American Express Financial Direct. ``That's not been our heritage. In the past we've been associated with premium prices.'' Indeed. American Express Financial Advisors, formerly known as IDS, has been very successful selling mutual funds and insurance with relatively high sales fees. The new Strategist funds are basically no-load versions of the mutual funds now sold with a 5 percent load by the Financial Advisors unit. Heron conceded that Advisors customers could well receive recommendations for a fund from their adviser, then buy it through the no-load service, but added they could do so today by turning to Vanguard or Fidelity. |
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