Jack Bogle, who died last month aged 89, founded the Vanguard Group asset management company. With it he launched the first "index fund" in 1975. He was a fierce advocate for investors' rights.
“If all investors had heeded his ideas, they would be hundreds of billions of dollars better off than they are now,” said sage Warren Buffet.
Not everybody liked what he did, of course, because he cost some advisors money. Here's why we love it...
Index funds allow the countless moms and pops to invest in the broad stock market, and in the process massively increase their returns by reducing the fees experts charge to do the job.
But surely the experts do better than the market average? No, that's the real kicker. They don't. By far, most stock-picking advisors underperform the market. Yet charge a lot for the privilege.
In the spirit of Henry Ford who democratized car ownership with the Model T, Mr Bogle made more effective saving and investment available to the many who could scrape together just $3,000 or more to buy into a Vanguard low-fee fund.
As an organization that's found a way to make financial reports and business smarts make sense to anyone, we're happy to think of ourselves as kindred spirits of the great, democratizing, Jack Bogle.
Along with legions of happy investors, we proudly call ourselves Bogleheads.
With best wishes
Peter.