Charles Schwab

Company: Charles Schwab

Area of Expertise: Investing

Website: www.schwab.com

Books: “How to Be Your Own Stockbroker,” “Charles Schwab’s Guide to Financial Independence,” “It Pays to Talk,” “You’re Fifty—Now What?” and “Invested: Changing the Way Americans Invest.”

Biography:

Charles “Chuck” R. Schwab started the San Francisco-based The Charles Schwab Corporation in 1971 as a traditional brokerage company, and in 1974 became a pioneer in the discount brokerage business.

Schwab took an early lead in the industry, offering a combination of low prices and fast, efficient order executions, and soon became the nation’s largest discount broker. Today, the company is the nation’s largest publicly traded investment services firm, with over $4 trillion in client assets. Often credited with “democratizing” investment, Schwab has driven countless innovations in the investment services industry designed to help individuals make the most of saving and investing, including 24/7 access to services, the one-stop mutual fund supermarket providing access to thousands of no-load, no-transaction-fee mutual funds, custodial services for independent registered investment advisers, online trading and many others. Today, the company has expanded from its roots as a discount brokerage and provides a full-service investing and banking experience to clients domestically and abroad, serving around 12.2 million accounts.

Schwab has been chairman of The Charles Schwab Corporation since its inception and served as CEO for most of its history until October 2008. He is also chairman of Charles Schwab Bank.