Vanguard Group founder and investing pioneer John C. Bogle has died at age 89, according to the company.
Bogle simplified investing for the masses by introducing the first index mutual fund for individual investors in 1976. Vanguard also shook up the industry by ending the company’s reliance on outside brokers by directly marketing its funds to investors without charging upfront fees known as sales loads.
Bogle served as Vanguard’s chairman and CEO from its 1974 founding until 1996. He stepped down as senior chairman in 2000, but remained a vocal critic of the fund industry and Wall Street, writing books, delivering speeches and running a markets think tank that bears his name.
