Portfolio case study · Product + systems

Rebuilding the front door of a trillion-dollar brokerage

In 2015, Schwab's online account opening had been frozen since 2005: one account type, paper for everything else. Three views tell the story of the rebuild: the macro problem, the decisions behind the UI, and the engine underneath it.

The work

Rebuilt Schwab's digital account opening, 2015–2018, replacing a 2005 Java monolith that had shipped one account type for a decade.

The approach

Bridge, don't rebuild: a modern UI + orchestration layer in front of back-office systems that already opened every account type.

The decisions

Expanded account selection, smaller identity requests, visible consent, restored feature routing, and versioned agreement acceptance.

The engine

MongoDB progressive state, sync core with async fan-out, and a governed STP rules engine replacing the Series 9/10 queue.

The story

Macro → Surface → Engine

The business problem, the product decisions, and the architecture underneath. Scroll, or use the arrow keys and the buttons on the visual.

Outcomes

Built for access, scale, and completion

The platform paired real-time account opening with scalable automation, resilient state management, and lower-friction enrollment.

< 6 sec

End-to-end latency

Processing velocity

Replaced multi-day, paper-based processing with synchronous, real-time account generation.

~85%

Algorithmic suitability

Straight-through processing

Digitized Series 9/10 review logic routed standard risk tiers past the back-office queue.

~80%

Invisible security nets

Frictionless identity

Experian risk scoring removed manual driver's license uploads for four out of five clients.

95.48%

Operational ROI

E-delivery adoption

Default opt-in reduced printing, postage, and manual mailing overhead.

2,600+

Backend scale

Daily originations

Absorbed enterprise volume surges without degrading stability or core performance.

< 3%

State caching

Hard-stop rate

Resilient asynchronous MongoDB state caching captured partial leads and protected funnel yield.

Single entry

Conversion optimization

Email friction reduction

One unmasked field with real-time validation removed a major drop-off point.

0

FINRA 3210 and SEC Rule 144

Required branch visits

Dynamic uploads kept affiliate and shareholder authorization letters in the digital session.

1 platform

Frontend configuration

Multi-product orchestration

One storefront supported individual and joint brokerage and bank accounts, IRA variants, trusts, organizations, custodial accounts, and combined brokerage-plus-bank journeys.

Days

FINRA Rule 4512

Compliance agility

The modular Trusted Contact protection flow shipped independently of core account creation.

609,000

Q1 2020 new brokerage accounts

The 2020 Black Swan stress test

During historic market volatility, the orchestration layer absorbed record retail volume while preserving account-opening continuity and clearing-core stability.

3.7M+

2020 new brokerage and banking accounts

A decade of compounding automation

The foundational architecture remained a durable retail-acquisition engine, decoupling account growth from back-office headcount through straight-through processing.