Baron Funds Comments on The Charles Schwab Corp

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Feb 20, 2014

Shares of The Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW, Financial) benefitted from favor able capital markets conditions. During the quarter, long-term interest rates moved higher in response to the Federal Reserve's tapering pronouncements. Schwab benefits from higher rates in several ways. The most significant is the potential for Schwab to reduce the fee waivers on its money market funds in a more normalized rate environment. This means Schwab would start recognizing highly profitable management fees on its money market funds, rather than rebating those fees back to shareholders. Schwab also benefitted from the rise in equity markets. Rising valuations of equity mutual funds result in higher management fees to Schwab.

From Baron Funds' fourth quarter letter 2013 to shareholders.