Schwab Intelligent Advisory, which includes unlimitedguidance from a certified financial planner and an in-depthfinancial plan, will charge new customers an upfront fee and a flatmonthly fee starting on April 1. (Photo: Shutterstock)

(Bloomberg) –It's not just Apple Inc. that's betting big onsubscriptions.

Charles Schwab Corp., the low-cost investingpioneer that now handles more than $3.5 trillion in assets, isswitching to a subscription-based financial planning option to itsdigital advisory service that offers morehands-on help, the company said Thursday.

“We are making this change on behalf of our clients to besimpler and more transparent, but we're also paying attention tothe broader landscape,'' Cynthia Loh, vice president of digitaladvice at San Francisco-based Schwab, said in an interview.“Customers are used to engaging with subscription services.''

Schwab Intelligent Advisory, which includes unlimited guidancefrom a certified financial planner and an in-depth financialplan, will charge new customers an upfront fee of $300 and a flat$30 a month starting on April 1, instead of the current 0.28percent of assets. The hybrid robo service is being renamed SchwabIntelligent Portfolios Premium.

Current users won't have to pay the $300 fee, and they'll betransitioned to the new pricing model as early as Thursday, butonly once they have enough assets to make it more cost-efficientfor them, at around the $125,000 level. The free version of theservice, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios, which automatically buildsand rebalances exchange-traded fund portfolios as well as offeringmore limited guidance, will continue charging no advisory fee.

The subscription model has become increasingly popular in thetechnology industry. Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple havemany millions of users, so even small monthly fees can quickly addup to significant revenue. Schwab has 300,000 accounts and $37billion across its digital offerings, including the robo-adviserservice, accounting for a small portion of its assets.

“There aren't many firms that have tens of millions ofcustomers,” said Devin Ryan, an analyst with JMP Securities LLC.“That being said, for certain parts of the industry that are maybetech-driven, incredibly scalable and could potential servicemillions of people, absolutely I could see there being value to asubscription model.''

READ MORE:

Risk exposure: Does your plan still offer companystock as an investment option? 

3 takeaways on trends in advisorinvesting

2019 stock market outlook: slower growth but norecession

Copyright 2019 Bloomberg. All rightsreserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten,or redistributed.