MAGDA WIERZYCKA: Farewell to the global financial icon who fought high investment fees
John Bogle’s vindication came in the past decade as Vanguard Group’s products finally took off
The year started with flags at half-mast at Sygnia as we heard about the death of global financial icon John Bogle. Bogle was the inventor of low-cost passively managed unit trusts, and founder of the Vanguard Group, the largest index-tracking manager in the world with $4.9-trillion in assets under management. When he first launched his index-tracking funds in the 1970s, he was ignored and then derided by the asset management industry in an era where concepts such as “market outperformance” or “alpha” reigned supreme, Wall Street titans were the masters of the universe, and maximising profits for shareholders was the sole objective of most financial firms. An investment philosophy that scorned all that Wall Street stood for and placed low management fees as its core gathered little support. Bogle, however, remained uncompromising in his belief that “because the returns investors receive come only after the deduction of the costs of our system of financial intermediation, just as a g...
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