Most Powerful Women in Finance: No. 5, Charles Schwab's Marie Chandoha

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President and CEO | Charles Schwab Investment Management

Charles Schwab was founded to reinvent investing and open up Wall Street to the masses. Marie Chandoha has embraced that mission, using her role at Schwab to continue to make the financial services industry more open to all.

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Charles Schwab Investment Management, in a series of announcements over the past year, launched the lowest-cost target date funds in the industry and broke with industry norms by making those lower fees available to all investors regardless of the size of their portfolios. It also has aligned expenses on index mutual funds and ETF equivalents, allowing customers more flexibility, and has eliminated investment minimums on index mutual funds.

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The changes have been good for business, as the investment management unit achieved record quarterly net flows of $7.8 billion into its index products in the first quarter of 2017. Its assets under management have grown to $315 billion as of March 31, from $280.2 billion at the end of 2015.

The changes also reflect Chandoha's desire to challenge the status quo in the industry. In addition to trying to attract more investors, she has championed diversity and encouraged her employees to do the same. One of her direct reports serves as the executive sponsor of the Schwab Organization of Latinos, another co-leads the Schwab Women's Network in Denver, and others initiated the development of the Denver Chapter of Women in ETFs.

This article originally appeared in American Banker.
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