U.S. Trust Senior Investment Strategist Elizabeth A. Sonders Appointed Chief Investment Strategist for The Charles Schwab Corporation

Business Wire, Nov 19, 2002

Business Editors

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 19, 2002

Newly-Created Position to Provide Market Insight

for All Schwab Clients

The Charles Schwab Corporation today announced the appointment of Elizabeth A. (Liz Ann) Sonders as senior managing director and chief investment strategist. Ms. Sonders, formerly managing director and a senior investment strategist for U.S. Trust Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary, will be responsible for delivering timely and useful information and perspectives on behalf of The Charles Schwab Corporation to all of the firm's clients.

Sonders, will continue to serve on U.S. Trust's investment policy committees. She will join the Investment Strategy Council of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., and the Research Group of Schwab Capital Markets, which provides technical analysis, industry, quantitative, political and economic research for corporate and institutional investors.

David S. Pottruck, president and Co-CEO, said the position of chief investment strategist at Schwab will focus on education and provide yet another alternative to traditional Wall Street practices.

"Schwab's advice model has always been about helping investors, not hyping stocks. We feel the same way about research. It should be relevant, not recycled," said Pottruck. "Liz Ann will help to explain Schwab-style advice and research to broad audiences -- whether they're institutions, active traders or individual investors. With her background as a portfolio manager and experience providing public commentary on the markets she will reinforce Schwab's long-standing philosophy of the importance of diversification and asset allocation and explain market activity and investment strategies in ways that are understandable and useful."

"Schwab's research is distinguished by its objectivity and comprehensive portfolio approach," said Sonders. "Chuck Schwab has been providing honest and thoughtful perspectives on the market to millions of investors for over three decades. It's an honor for me to join Chuck in helping to bring the full range of Schwab research -- quantitative, economic and political -- to our clients to help them make sound long-term investment decisions."

Sonders was most recently a senior investment strategist for U.S. Trust where she served on its investment policy committees and shared U.S. Trust's perspectives on investment opportunities with high-net-worth individuals, corporations and pension funds. Sonders joined U.S. Trust in 1999 as a managing director in its Campbell, Cowperthwait Division. Previously, Sonders was a managing director and portfolio manager at Avatar Associates in New York, a firm specializing in tactical asset allocation, where she was co-head of stock selection. She is a graduate of the University of Delaware where she received a BA in Economics and Political Science. She received her MBA in finance from Fordham University. Ms. Sonders is a regular panelist on CNBC's Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street, having been on its PBS predecessor, Wall $treet Week With Louis Rukeyser, since 1997. She is a regular guest on other CNBC programs, as well as CBS, CNN, Bloomberg TV and Fox News With Neil Cavuto. Sonders is a frequent speaker about the stock market and the economy at money management seminars nationwide and is a regular panelist at New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA) and Securities Industry Institute (SII) events.

The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE:SCH), through Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (member SIPC/NYSE), U.S. Trust Corporation, CyberTrader, Inc. (member SIPC/NASD) and its other operating subsidiaries, is one of the nation's largest financial services firms serving 8.0 million active accounts with $753.5 billion in client assets. The Charles Schwab, U.S. Trust and CyberTrader Web sites can be reached at www.schwab.com, www.ustrust.com and www.cybertrader.com, respectively. (0002-10821)