Charles Schwab Corporation

Charles Schwab is one of the largest brokerage and wealth-management firms in the United States, serving individual investors and independent advisers with trading, banking and asset-management services. Its scale, low-cost model and large base of client assets, boosted by the acquisition of TD Ameritrade, give it a dominant position in retail investing. Schwab has paid dividends for more than three decades, funded by a mix of net interest income, asset-management fees and trading revenue. The current yield is low, so the story is one of a long-established, dependable payout with room to grow, though earnings are sensitive to interest rates and to client cash and trading activity.