John Bogle is one of the pioneers of the mutual fund industry in the United States, a founder of the Vanguard Group, and an author of several books and innumerable articles about finance and investing. He is also one of the most outspoken critics of the mutual fund industry today. In his most recent book, The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism (Yale University Press, 2005), Bogle writes, “Using an organizational design that would amaze (and delight!) the oligarchs of corporate America, the managers of mutual funds have enjoyed virtually free rein to place their interests ahead of the interests of the owners of their funds.” This is characteristically strong language, but is it an accurate representation of an industry that now has over 90 million investors and almost $9 trillion in assets? And what organizational design does Mr. Bogle recommend? These and other questions will be considered at this conference.

This is the ninth event in a continuing series on mutual fund regulation entitled, “Is There a Better Way to Regulate Mutual Funds?”