A Commitment to Your Privacy

Effective July 1, 2008.

At The Charles Schwab Corporation and its affiliates and subsidiaries (“Schwab”), our most important asset is our relationship with you. We are honored that you have entrusted us with your financial affairs, and we are committed to protecting the privacy of information we maintain about you. Establishing and adhering to an effective privacy policy, regarding proper handling and use, is an important part of that dedication.

Below, you will find details about Schwab’s commitment to protecting your privacy, including the types of information we collect about you, how we use and share that information both within and outside the Schwab family of companies, and how you can instruct us to limit certain types of information sharing. Our privacy policy applies to all clients with whom we have a relationship and is also extended to each of our former clients.

Your Privacy Is Not for Sale
Simply put, we do not and will not sell your personal information to anyone, for any reason, at any time.

How We Collect Information About You
We collect personal information about you in a number of ways.

Application and registration information. We collect information from you when you open an account or enroll in one of our services. You will also be asked for information when you choose to participate in a Schwab promotion. We may also collect information from consumer reporting agencies to verify your identity in the account-opening process or if you apply for other financial products or services. The information we collect may include personal information such as your name, address, phone number, email address, Social Security number and date of birth, as well as details about your interests, investments and investment experience.
Transaction and experience information. Once you have opened an account with us, we collect and maintain personal information about your account activity, including your transactions, balances, positions and history. This information allows us to administer your account and provide the services you have requested.
Third-party information providers. We may collect information about you from information services and consumer reporting agencies to verify your identity, employment or creditworthiness, or to better understand your financial needs.
Website usage. When you visit our website, our systems may use devices known as “cookies,” graphic interchange format files (GIFs), or other similar web tools to enhance your web experience. These tools enable us to recognize you when you return to our site, maintain your web session while you browse, as well as help us provide you with a better, more personalized experience at Schwab. To learn more about our policies regarding using our website and the use of web tools, please visit www.schwab.com/privacy.

How We Share and Use Information About You Within the Schwab Family of Companies
The term “Schwab” refers to a family of financial services companies that are owned by The Charles Schwab Corporation. These companies are often referred to as “affiliates” and include, but are not limited to:

Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., a broker-dealer
Charles Schwab Bank, a retail bank
Charles Schwab Trust Company, a division of Charles Schwab Bank
Charles Schwab, Hong Kong, Limited
Charles Schwab, U.K., Limited
Schwab Retirement Plan Services, Inc.
The 401(k) Companies, Inc.

Many clients do business with more than one Schwab affiliate, creating an efficient, comprehensive financial relationship to meet individual needs. When appropriate, Schwab may share information we collect about you within our family of companies to:

help provide you with better service or perform services on our behalf;
respond to communications from you (or as you authorize or request);
make it more convenient for you to open a new account.

Schwab may also allow an affiliate to provide you with information about its products and services that we believe may benefit or interest you. You may instruct Schwab not to share information about you with our affiliates for certain purposes, as explained under “How to Limit the Sharing and Use of Information About You.”

How We Share Information About You Outside of the Schwab Family of Companies
We provide access to information about you to outside companies and other third parties in certain limited circumstances, including:

to help us process transactions for your account;
when we use another company to provide services for us, such as printing and mailing your account statements;
when we believe that disclosure is required or permitted under law. For example, we may be required to disclose personal information to cooperate with regulatory or law enforcement authorities, to resolve consumer disputes, to perform credit/authentication checks, or for risk control.

Schwab may also enter into a joint-marketing agreement with another financial institution in order to provide you with a Schwab-branded financial product or service. We only make such agreements with companies that we believe can help us provide a financial product or service that will benefit you. You may instruct us not to share information about you with outside companies for this purpose, as explained under “How to Limit the Sharing and Use of Information About You.”

How to Limit the Sharing and Use of Information About You
If you prefer, you may choose to limit the information we share about you among our affiliates and outside companies for marketing purposes. If you choose to do so, Schwab will not:

share with our affiliates consumer reports and other personal information about you that may be used to determine your eligibility for credit (for example, information about your income, profession or employment status);
allow our affiliates to market their financial products or services to you based on eligibility information they receive from us;
share personal information about you with an outside company for joint-marketing purposes.

You may exercise this choice by calling us at 1-877-812-1817; or

for services in Chinese: 1-800-662-6068;
for services in Spanish: 1-800-786-5174;
from outside the U.S.: +1-415-667-8400.

Your choice will be applied to you as an individual and will automatically be extended to all of your accounts at Schwab.
Joint account holders may instruct us on behalf of another account holder but only in relation to the joint account.
You may make your privacy choice at any time, and it will remain in effect until you tell Schwab to change it. If you have previously given Schwab your privacy choice with respect to your current accounts, you do not need to provide it again.

If you exercise your privacy choice, Schwab will continue to share information among our affiliates that identifies you (such as your name and Social Security number), as well as information about your transactions and experiences with us. In addition, Schwab affiliates may continue to use information about you to perform services on our behalf, to respond to communications from you, as you authorize or request, or, if you are their customer, to offer you products or services. We may also continue to share information about you with outside companies as permitted or required by law.

Company Mailing Choice
Unless we receive your objection, Schwab may be required under the provisions of Rule 14b-1 of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 to release your name, address and number of shares to the issuers of securities you hold. If you object, you will not receive any corporate communications mailed out by the issuer other than regulatory mailings required to be sent out to all holders, which you will receive from us. If you wish to exercise this preference, please contact Schwab at 1-800-435-4000.

State Laws
Schwab will comply with state laws that apply to the disclosure or use of information about you. For example, if your address is in Vermont, we will automatically limit information sharing as described in “How to Limit the Sharing and Use of Information About You” without your having to advise us of this privacy choice. The following notice is required to be made under Nevada law to all customers with a Nevada mailing address. At any time, you may request to be placed on our internal “do not call” list. You may do so by calling Schwab at 1-800-435-4000. Customers from any state may request to be placed on Schwab’s internal “do not call” list by calling Schwab at 1-800-435-4000. If you would like further information about this notice, you may contact us at Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., 101 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA 94104; or call 1-800-435-4000. For services in Chinese, please call 1-800-662-6068. For services in Spanish, please call 1-800-786-5174. From outside the U.S., please call +1-415-667-8400. Email us from the Contact Us section once you log in to schwab.com. For more information about the Nevada “do not call” notice requirement, you may also contact the Nevada Attorney General, 555 E. Washington Ave., Suite 3900, Las Vegas, NV 89101; phone: 1-702-486-3132; email: BCPINFO@ag.state.nv.us.

Safeguarding Your Information, Maintaining Your Trust
We take precautions to ensure the information we collect about you is protected and is accessed only by authorized individuals or organizations. Companies we use to provide support services are not allowed to use information about our clients for their own purposes and are contractually obligated to maintain strict confidentiality. We limit their use of information to the performance of the specific services we have requested. We restrict access to personal information by our employees and agents. Our employees are trained about privacy and are required to safeguard personal information. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect personal information.

Teaming Up Against Identity Theft
Identity theft is a serious concern to all of us. Safeguarding information to help protect you from identity theft is a priority at Schwab. We’re committed to keeping your personal and financial information safe online. To enhance your security, Schwab takes steps to protect you from identity theft by:

utilizing client identification and authentication procedures before initiating transactions;
using firewalls and encryption technology to protect personal information on our computer systems;
creating a secure transmission connection to our Schwab websites. You will see a key or closed padlock in the browser’s status bar indicating it is a secure site. In other browsers, look for the address bar to turn green;
training our employees on privacy and security to properly handle personal information about you.

You can also help protect your identity and accounts. Here are a few steps to remember:

when using the Internet, keep your login ID and password confidential;
keep your security software up-to-date and turned on;
shred documents that contain personal information;
check your credit report regularly for unauthorized activity and protect your personal identification numbers (PINs) and personal data.

If you suspect fraud or identity theft, the faster you act the better. Please call us at 1-800-435-4000.

For services in Chinese, please call 1-800-662-6068.
For services in Spanish, please call 1-800-786-5174.
From outside the U.S., please call +1-415-667-8400.

Greater Accuracy Means Better Protection
We are committed to keeping accurate, up-to-date records to help ensure the integrity of the information we maintain about you. If you identify an inaccuracy in this information or if you need to make a change to it, please contact us promptly by calling 1-800-435-4000.

A Commitment to Keeping You Informed
We will provide you with advance notice of important changes to our information-sharing practices.

Contact Us with Questions
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us by email at privacy@schwab.com or call us at 1-800-435-4000.

For services in Chinese, please call 1-800-662-6068.
For services in Spanish, please call 1-800-786-5174.
From outside the U.S., please call +1-415-667-8400.

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