A new generation of business students will soon be trained in investment and wealth management skills at a new Charles Schwab Trading and Technology Lab at the University of California at Irvine.
The lab will be the cornerstone of a new 78,000-square-foot building to be built within the University's Paul Merage School of Business.
"Schwab is thrilled to be supporting academic institutions to cultivate highly skilled, future business leaders and in turn to support and advance the independent advisor industry,” Bernie Clark, executive vice president and head of Schwab Advisor Services, said in a statement tied to the lab’s ground-breaking this week.
The lab will provide a tutorial environment where students can receive hands-on experience using the technology. The company also says students can learn about a wide range of advisor activities, from business development and client service to investment management and back office operations.
The lab is being designed with state-of-the-art features to mimic the environment and layout found at a securities trading floor, the company says, allowing students to access the latest financial market data; use interactive trade stations featuring Bloomberg, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Thomson/Reuters, Matlab, Factset and eSignal; and view TV monitors streaming global financial news and tickertape.
The Charles Schwab Foundation is providing funds to build the facility. Two Schwab subsidiaries, Schwab Performance Technologies and Schwab Intelligent Technologies, have both donated technology to the lab.
Schwab’s donated technology package will include license seats to Schwab Performance Technologies' PortfolioCenter portfolio management tool and access to SchwabAdvisorCenter.com, the website used by RIAs who custody assets with Schwab Advisor Services. Schwab is also including the Schwab OpenView Gateway and the Schwab OpenView Workflow Library from Schwab Intelligent Technologies, which has recently developed solutions focused on helping advisors better serve their clients by integrating technology and best practices workflows.
The building itself will include a new 300-seat auditorium, 70-seat and 90-seat case study classrooms, a multi-purpose classroom, an executive conference room and twenty group study breakout rooms.
