Custodian
Charles Schwab (RIA custody)
Schwab is the main open custodian for tax-aware long/short SMAs, with three rounds of new limits in 2026.
- Their fee
- Charged by your advisor
- Minimum
- $10M
- Onboarding
- Not disclosed
- Status
- Restricted
No advisory fee. Financing on long/short accounts is 0.40% to 1.20% by account size, per one RIA.
$10M for new tax-aware long/short SMAs from 2026-09-16, up from $1M.
2026 limits: (1) April: long/short SMAs capped at 30% of an RIA's Schwab assets, and leverage capped at 200/100. (2) A second round of account and borrowing limits. (3) 2026-09-16: $10M minimum, and no new clients or new money in higher-leverage portfolio margin accounts. Existing accounts keep their terms.
Advisor-held accounts only.
Products they offer
Tax-aware long/short
| Product | Product fee | All-in fee |
|---|---|---|
| Cache (Brooklyn Indexing / Nuveen): Cache Long/ShortCache Long/Short is custodied at Schwab. | 0.50%–1.00% | Not disclosed |
| Aperio (BlackRock): Long/Short SMAs (130/30 Quality Value, Tax-Managed Dynamic Factor)Aperio long/short accounts sit at Fidelity and Schwab. | 0.55% | Not disclosed |
| Franklin Templeton (Canvas): Canvas Tax Aware Long ShortCanvas says that Schwab capped leverage at 200/100. | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| AQR: Tax-aware long/short (Flex SMAs and TA private funds)Press reports do not list each manager by custodian. | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Quantinno: DEALS (Core / Exchange / Overlay)Press reports do not list each manager by custodian. | 0.45% | Not disclosed |
Sources
Checked 2026-10. Confidence: high.