We are often asked why we like Vanguard and Fidelity. Below is an excerpt from the February 2014 issue of Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report in which Dick Young explains his history with Jack Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group. As we all know, there is only one Vanguard.
P.P.S. In 2014, investors poured $216 billion into the Vanguard Group, which today is #1 in index-tracking products. I have been with Vanguard from the start. Vanguard founder Jack Bogle was at Wellington Management back in the early seventies in Boston. Wellington was an institutional account of mine in the years I was with Model Roland. I loved working with the guys at Wellington (today still the managers of my highly favored and owned Wellesley Income and GNMA), and I remember how excited I was when Jack announced his new Vanguard venture.
Over the many decades, I have never deviated from my allegiance to Wellington Management, Jack, or the Vanguard Group, and I continue to advise that you, as an individual investor, custody your family assets at either Vanguard or Fidelity Investments, home base for Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. I am often asked why RCY Ltd. is no longer at Vanguard, where we began at our founding. The simple reason is that Vanguard was shutting down its advisor custody business. I was on a swamp boat tour in Louisiana when I received a phone call from John Brennan, Vanguard CEO at the time. John delivered the sad news, but told me that we were welcome to stay aboard. What great news. We remained with Vanguard until it was time for me to admit, sadly, that a wonderful era was over. We transferred to my friends at Fidelity, which had also been a valued account of mine at Model Roland. Today, as an individual investor, just like you, I have custody accounts at both of these extraordinary firms.
