(somber music)

KEVIN MILLER: When the fire started, I was in the Encino branch. 

One wall of our building has windows that look south, and I looked out, and I could see a long, dark line of smoke. 

That's when I knew things were getting very serious, and I contacted my manager and told him I felt we needed to shut the branches down, and he said, "Do it."

ZACHARY SPRINGER: Everything was very quick. There wasn't time to reconsider your thoughts.

NEHA SHAH: I felt like if we were packing up, it meant that our house was really at risk and that we were gonna lose everything.

PAUL WOOLWAY: And it was shock, was my first reaction, shock at the magnitude of the fires but also shock at the impact that it was having on the people there.

ZACHARY: I grabbed letters from my parents that I had saved throughout college and high school and headed out. The fire was getting very close at that time.

(sirens wailing)

(fire crackling)

KEVIN: My brain switched from the safety of the staff to being forward-thinking in how we were gonna help our clients.

We put out a message to everybody about how they should be thinking about things as they're contacting their clients. They should 100% be calling clients, but be aware that they may be under an incredible amount of stress right now.

NEHA: We started coordinating calls with our community-based partners, and these calls really, I think, symbolized and were a metaphor for Charles Schwab Bank's approach to community development.

PAUL: What our community development group does is they really serve as kind of the boots on the ground. They're there in times of need. They understand what the

community groups need in terms of resources, and they're best connected

with us here at Schwab to bring our full capabilities to bear.

(gentle music)

KEVIN: I think that opening the branches was a hugely important

step for us to take. I think it said to everybody in the community that we're not going anywhere. We can bounce back from this. Let's get back to it.

ROBERT SCHOTT: Clients were coming in here with just their clothes on their back. I had some clients live in their homes for 40 years. It was just really being there to listen for them and empathize with them and to utilize those resources of a company like Schwab.

KEVIN: It was very busy. We had clients in the lobby using our Wi-Fi, drinking coffee, making insurance claims. They were in the offices with our financial consultants chatting.

ZACHARY: There was a woman that came with a check. It was of the amount where I could tell this was from the fires.

I just kind of asked her, "I'm so sorry to see this, Miss. Were you Altadena or Palisades?"

And she said, "Palisades."

And I told her, "I'm sorry. I'm going through the same thing. I lost my house in Altadena."

This situation has strengthened our relationship with our clients immensely.

KEVIN: I had a home in Altadena. It was the first home I ever bought when I had just become a financial consultant at Schwab many years ago. And my daughter helped me find it.

She said, "I like that little house because I love the fireplace."

And it had a very sweet fireplace, a very small home.

The folks who were living in our home texted me and told me that it was gone, so. 

KEVIN: This disaster that we went through showed me that our role is truly one where we are indispensable to our clients, and we provide a huge amount of help, a sounding board.

We're therapists. We have been their trusted advisor, and they relied on us through the most challenging thing that many of us will ever go through.And that's a very... It makes you very proud and humble and very happy to do what we do.

(gentle music continues)