The California Colossus is at it again. The San Francisco firm has just launched its retirement planner online, Rebecca Metz, senior marketing manager of the Electronic Brokerage Enterprise at Charles Schwab, told our sister publication, The 401kWire.com. The service will be available to all of Schwab's investors, not just those in Schwab 401(k) plans.

"The retirement planner allows the investor to pose what-if scenarios, using their own financial data," Metz reported.

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"It is designed to help the investor see if they are going to make it with the different scenarios. It helps them see if they are going to fall short. We also offer calculators and modeling."

The official also noted that the investor can input data from other accounts as well.

"The retirement planner is available in the Schwab Customer Center," Randy Goldman, vice president of electronic brokerage product development, stated. "To perform any transactions, you have to move out of the retirement planner and into other areas of the website."

"We provide in-depth information of all the funds Schwab offers," she added.

"The modeling data comes out of our own internal research and verified by an outside firm, " Goldman continued.

The official also reported that the data from the what-if exercises are saved if the customer so desires. The firm will then remind the customer six months down the line, say, about those goals and examine how closely they are being met.

Goldman looked toward the future of this service. "As we build this tool out, we will being a more advice-oriented product. We will be helping our investors determine if their accounts are properly weighted by class, and we will suggest mutual funds that will help meet their retirement objectives," she said.

"Our goal is to always been available and dependable for our customers. We want to provide superior online customer service. We have even reduced the number of frames on the site. We are down to two frames. And we will be down to one this summer," Goldman concluded. 

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