The Charles Schwab Corporation is an American brokerage and banking company, based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1971 by Charles R. "Chuck" Schwab, as a traditional brick and mortar brokerage firm and investment newsletter publisher. In 1973, the company changed its name from First Commander Corporation to Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. The company started offering discount brokerage on May 1, 1975, and became one of the world's largest discount brokers.
Schwab operates in four main divisions: investing, wealth management, banking, and trading. The company serves 7.9 million client brokerage accounts, with $1.65 trillion in assets (as of September 2011), from over 300 offices in the U.S, one office in Puerto Rico, and one branch in London. Clients can also access services online and by telephone. In 2009, Chairman Charles R. Schwab received the inaugural Tiburon CEO Summit award for Maintaining a Focus on Consumer Needs.
History
Charles Robert Schwab, Jr. (born July 29, 1937) is an American businessman and investor and the founder of the Charles Schwab Corporation.
Early life and education
Schwab was born in Sacramento, California. He attended Santa Barbara High School in Santa Barbara, California, and was captain of the golf team. He attended pre-college school at Holy Rosary Academy in Woodland, California. Schwab graduated from Stanford University in 1959 with a B.A. in Economics. In 1961, he graduated from Stanford Graduate School of Business with an MBA. Schwab is a knight of the Sigma Nu fraternity.
Schwab is dyslexic, but was unaware of it until the age of 40, when he learned his son is also dyslexic. The Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation aims to assist children with the disorder.
Career
In 1963, Chuck Schwab and two other partners launched Investment Indicator, an investment newsletter. At its height, the newsletter had 3,000 subscribers, each paying $84 a year to subscribe. In April 1971, the firm incorporated in California as First Commander Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Commander Industries, Inc., to offer traditional brokerage services and publish the Schwab investment newsletter. In November of that year, Schwab and four others purchased all the stock from Commander Industries, Inc. In 1972, Schwab bought all the stock from what was once Commander Industries. In 1973, the company name changed to Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. In September 1975, Schwab opened its first branch in Sacramento, California, after offering discount brokerage from May 1, 1975.
Charles Schwab may refer to: