Vanguard founder John Bogle.
The founder of Vanguard and creator of the first index mutual fund in 1975, John "Jack" Bogle, who died at his home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, also left the Securities and Exchange Commission with advice to mull as it marches ahead with its advice-standards package and the much-debated Regulation Best Interest.
Advisors and industry officials shared their thoughts with ThinkAdvisor Thursday as they remembered the legendary fund icon, saying he "revolutionized" the world of investments and was a "visionary."
Bogle, 89, was honored six times as one of the most influential people in the advice industry by Investment Advisor Magazine.
(Read one of his last interviews: John Bogle: RIAs Are the Future; Trading Is Investors' Enemy on ThinkAdvisor)
A fiduciary advocate, Bogle was a supporter of the now-defunct Labor Department fiduciary rule. He noted in November 2016 the positive impact Labor's rule was having on retirement accounts, citing decisions by broker-dealers like Merrill Lynch to stop allowing front-end loads. (After Labor's rule was vacated last June, Merrill has backtracked somewhat on its stance).
Bogle said at the time that if a fiduciary rule by the SEC never surfaces, acting in a fiduciary capacity "will become the standard in the brokerage office, and that will become the way of doing business."
In a June 2018 meeting with SEC Chairman Jay Clayton, which Bogle attended with members of the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard, Bogle aired his views on the agency's upcoming Reg BI.
Bogle told Clayton that he applauded the commission's "attempt to ensure that the best interests of investors are not superseded by the interests of service marketers," calling Reg BI "the essence of fiduciary duty."
While Bogle confessed that he had not yet read in its entirety the commission's 900-word memo describing how Reg BI will be implemented, he warned Clayton: "Ideas are a dime a dozen. Implementation is everything."
