Schwab made Docusign mandatory for 11,000 advisory firms on November 2, and nobody said what it pays
From November 2, 2026, every new agreement at the custodian to 11,000-plus independent advisory firms must run on Docusign, and the price of the mandate has not been disclosed. Docusign's next earnings report is the first that can price it.
Vincent Jiang · 2 min read
Charles Schwab+1.34% — Charles Schwab, up 1.34 percent today, the Westlake, Texas custodian to more than 11,000 independent advisory firms, flipped the switch on Monday, November 2: every new client and account agreement must now be executed through Docusign+0.30% — Docusign, up 0.30 percent today 12. Paper forms and ink signatures are no longer accepted for accounts that can be opened digitally, with exceptions only for private assets and complicated legal structures. Docusign has sat inside Schwab since 2003, always as an option advisers could ignore 12. From today it is the only door. 12
A mandate with no disclosed price
For Docusign (Nasdaq: DOCU) this is compulsory distribution. Every new account on the platform most independent advisers custody with now runs over its rails, and rivals are locked out of the channel. The open-source alternative DocuSeal counts 18,798 GitHub stars and a fresh October release, but no star count gets past a custodial requirement. 15 Neither Schwab nor Docusign has disclosed what the mandate pays, and that gap is the whole investment question.
Docusign's fiscal third quarter closed October 31, so the next report is the first print that can show whether the Schwab switch converts into bookings 6. The business is growing steadily but not explosively: revenue of $875.8 million in the quarter ended July 31, up 9.4% year over year, with operating income rising faster. 6 The late-October SAP deal, which embeds Docusign's agreement tools inside SAP+0.11% — SAP, up 0.11 percent today Sales Cloud and SuccessFactors as SAP-branded extensions, lands in the same print. 3
Docusign revenue grew 9.4% year over year in its July quarter
- Revenue
- Free cash flow
Data
| Revenue | Free cash flow | |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 '24 | $754.82M | $210.71M |
| Q4 '24 | $776.25M | $279.57M |
| Q1 '25 | $763.65M | $227.82M |
| Q2 '25 | $800.64M | $217.65M |
| Q3 '25 | $818.35M | $262.9M |
| Q4 '25 | $836.86M | $350.2M |
| Q1 '26 | $830.24M | $289.44M |
| Q2 '26 | $875.75M | $295.76M |
Schwab is paying for the AI separately
Schwab took an equity stake in Nevis, a 2024 onboarding-AI startup, on October 26, and Nevis announced a $70 million Series B the same day, led by EQT Ventures, bringing total funding to $110 million 17. Nevis goes live for Schwab advisers in Q1 2027, with RIAs paying separately through Schwab's marketplace, alongside $4,800 of Claude usage credits per firm signed up before December 1. 17 The signature is the commodity; the AI layer around it is where Schwab is spending.
Holders get a clean test in the next report: a mandated channel either moves the numbers, or the commodity argument wins.
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