Charles Schwab's daughter focuses on financial literacy

Just as her father, Charles Schwab, set out to bring investing to average Americans, Carrie Schwab- Pomerantz is dedicated to making financial education and understanding attainable for all. "The lack of financial literacy cuts across Americans from all walks of life. It is blind to socioeconomic status, to gender and to age," Ms. Schwab-Pomerantz, chair of Schwab Charitable and the Schwab Foundation, told attendees at the InvestmentNews Women Adviser Summit in San Francisco. Financial literacy is crucial to workforce readiness and the empowerment of women — and it's clearly needed across the nation, given that eight out of 10 Americans live paycheck to paycheck and a third of those over the age of 55 have no set retirement savings, she said. [Recommended video: Next generation clients want advisers to help them live better lives]​ Surprisingly, Ms. Schwab-Pomerantz attributes her passion for financial education to what she experienced growing up. "My dad for most of my childhood was a struggling businessman," she told the audience of mostly female financial advisers. "He was 15 years away from the man everyone knows today." Charles Schwab's bank and brokerage now have about $3.8 trillion in client assets. She explained that her parents divorced when she was 9 and she watched as her mother had to learn financial fundamentals that she hadn't been responsible for until then. "As women we tend to abdicate our finances, no matter the background, and I wanted to change that," she said. Ms. Schwab-Pomerantz said she's observed that her female colleagues at Schwab were all exposed to money in some way early on, and she believes that financial education at a young age is key. She has ensured that her organization supports efforts to provide financial education for children, including working with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, which reach four million mostly underserved kids around the country. "Financial literacy levels the playing field and exposes you to numbers and finances, but it also creates responsible, ethical citizens," Ms. Schwab-Pomerantz said. She's also looking for solutions to the nation's skyrocketing student loan debt, with Americans graduating on average with $30,000 in loans. "Schwab talks about 'own your own tomorrow,' but how the heck do you own your tomorrow when you are in the hole stepping out of college?" she asked. Ms. Schwab-Pomerantz said part of the problem is that college is prohibitively expensive. "My next life, I'm going to be an advocate for college access," she joked. The San Francisco InvestmentNews Women Adviser Summit was the fifth of six such events this year, with the remaining conference taking place on Nov. 19 in New York.