More than fund-related item has emerged from "Chuck"'s San Francisco headquarters this week.

First, Charles Schwab plans to cut prices across the board. The company announced Wednesday a massive price-lowering program that will take effect on July 1.

Retail clients of Schwab Investor Services will pay no more than $12.95 per online equity trade, while a flat fee, rather than a minimum, of $49.95 will be charged for online and automated telephone mutual fund transactions.

The mutual fund transaction price drops are one small part of Schwab’s larger service enhancement initiative.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Schwab announced it's restructured the Laudus Balanced MarketMastersFund, renaming it the Schwab Viewpoints Fund and putting it under the management of Jeff Mortimer, chief investment officer for equities at Schwab Investment Management. International, small-cap and additional large-cap equity investments have been added to the nine-year-old fund, in keeping with the recommendations of the company's Investment Strategy Counsel.

Harris Associates will serve as sub-advisor for the international portion of the portfolio, which is now up to about 15 percent. Other sub-advisers include Gardner Lewis Asset Management, Pacific Investment Management Company, and TCW Investment Management Company.  

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Schwab's pricing scheme for online mutual fund transactions.

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