HR Toolkit: the Schwab PCRA in your 401(k)
For HR and benefits teams whose 401(k) includes the Schwab PCRA. Plain facts for your benefits file, the materials employees can be pointed to, and a way to ask us for research.
What the Schwab PCRA is
The Schwab Personal Choice Retirement Account (PCRA) is a self-directed brokerage account that sits inside your 401(k). Employees who use it can hold stocks, bonds, ETFs and thousands of mutual funds alongside the 401(k)'s regular funds. The money never leaves the 401(k).
It is also a door to professional advice. An employee's own advisor can advise them on it, and the 401(k) may let that advisor manage it directly.
How rare it is
Only about 1 in 8 401(k)s in Utah and Texas include a self-directed brokerage account (2024 Form 5500 filings, 401(k)s with 100 to 5,000 active employees enrolled). Utah's largest 401(k)s that offer it include Intermountain Health, the State of Utah, SkyWest, Extra Space Storage, CHG Healthcare, Harmons, Mountain America Credit Union, Merit Medical and Ultradent. In Texas, the State's own Texa$aver program offers it, and so do AT&T, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Chevron and Texas Instruments.
If employees ask
Schwab's own PCRA overview is a good place to point them: schwab.com/pcra. Schwab's PCRA line is 888-393-PCRA (7272).
For account questions, the 401(k) website and the number on the 401(k) statement are the right first stop. Our how to turn it on page walks through the steps in plain language.
Terms worth knowing
SDBA: self-directed brokerage account, the industry's general term. PCRA: Schwab's name for its version. Brokerage window: another common name for the same feature. LPOA: limited power of attorney, the form that lets an employee's advisor trade in the account. Form 5500: the annual report every 401(k) files with the Department of Labor; it is where the brokerage option shows up as code 2R.
What's coming
A quarterly look at PCRA trends from Schwab's own published data, written for your benefits file.
Request research
Want something specific? Ask. We'll do our best with public filings and published sources.
Some requests may be outside what we can provide ourselves. When that happens, we'll tell you, and we'll do what we can to get you the information, including through an advisor we can connect you with.