Bogle hypocrisy on mutual fund pay?

Ross Kerber of the Boston Globe has an interesting story this morning about Vanguard founder John Bogle (of indexing fame) and his quest to force fund companies to reveal top executives' pay. One of his critics, Daniel Wiener, editor of the Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors, points out that Bogle took steps to shield his own pay levels when he ran Vanguard in the 1990s. From the article:

In the May issue of the Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors, editor Daniel P. Wiener wrote that Bogle's recent proposals make him ''the 180-degree man." In an interview, Wiener said Bogle oversaw steps that removed details about executive compensation from Vanguard's fund filings later in the 1990s, and called him a ''hypocrite."

''It's amazing Jack Bogle is so vehement on this topic," Wiener said, even though he supports more disclosure himself. He said a more likely motive is that Bogle wants to tweak the current Vanguard chairman, John J. Brennan.

Bogle dismisses that notion, and said the data disappeared from Vanguard's filings in the 1990s because of new SEC reporting guidelines. Since other companies weren't required to report pay, he said, ''I didn't see any reason to disclose."

Bogle called Wiener's charge of hypocrisy ''fair enough to say" and acknowledged he didn't like it when Wiener reviewed documents filed by all Vanguard funds for 1991 and calculated Bogle's compensation at $2.6 million, a widely quoted figure in the business press.

''I didn't like having it in the public eye," Bogle said. ''It looked like I was making a lot of money relative to others in the business, and I was really tail-end Charlie."

You can read more about Bogle's change of heart in the Globe article.

Now, I wonder how much Fidelity's top execs are making? I very much doubt we'll ever find out, barring a court case that brings salary records into the public eye.


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