Vanguard Group Founder, John C. Bogle Dies at 89

Legendary but plainspoken figure on Wall Street whose creation of index funds at Vanguard Group transformed the way many Americans invest, John C. “Jack” Bogle has died of cancer at age 89, TOPNAIJA.NG reports.

Bogle graduated from Princeton University in 1951 and began working at Wellington Fund, an early mutual-fund company, eventually becoming its chairman. In 1974, he founded the Vanguard Company, ushering in the era of low-cost, low-fee index funds, which simplified investing for many families. In 1999, Fortune named Bogle as “one of the four investment giants of the 20th Century.”

Bogle was inspired to work in the fledgling business of mutual funds in 1949 after reading an article in Fortune magazine. He founded Vanguard as a mutual-fund company that would be owned by its shareholders, with profits from the funds being returned to them in the form of smaller fees. Vanguard had about $5.3 trillion in global assets under management as of last September.