Buckley, 52, declined an interview request. Chas Kurtz, a spokesman, said any changes reflect Vanguard’s long history of evolving to meet its clients’ needs.

“Vanguard has been continuously innovating and evolving since Mr. Bogle founded the firm,” Kurtz said in a statement.

Different Vibe
Bogle, who died in 2019 and retired from Vanguard's board two decades earlier, is revered across America. Creating the first retail index fund in the 1970s, he preached that investment managers who claimed they could beat the market were mostly selling snake oil. His vision for so-called passive investing turned out to be one of the biggest financial innovations of the 20th century, saving money for tens of millions of investors and retirees.

On Vanguard’s quiet, redbrick campus in suburban Philadelphia, you won’t find many aspiring masters of the universe along the exercise trails or hitting the salad bar in the “galley,” one of many nautical names Vanguard uses for its campus and staff—“crew”—with summer-camp sincerity. (Bogle named the firm for Horatio Nelson's flagship at the Battle of the Nile in 1798, and for its leadership connotations.)

The culture is partly maintained by hiring employees from local colleges and promoting from within. Vanguard pays about one-third less than the competition, according to a person familiar with its compensation practices.

Kurtz, the Vanguard spokesman, said the firm offers “competitive, comprehensive, and best-in-class total rewards.”

Lower base pay can be offset by its phantom equity program, as well as an unusually generous 401(k) plan that contributes the equivalent of 10% of an employee’s salary to their retirement account.

“No one goes to Wall Street to turn over future profits to the customers,” said Eric Balchunas, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence and author of “The Bogle Effect,” a forthcoming book about Bogle's life and influence—underscoring the difference between the priorities at Vanguard and its competitors.

Vanguard is still pulling in astonishing sums, and increased its market share from 17% to 26% from 2012 through 2021, according to Morningstar data.

But as it’s amassed trillions, its net asset growth rate has slowed, trending lower in the years since 2018.

Vanguard has been so successful at spreading its gospel of low-cost index funds that it’s been adopted at top-tier rivals, including BlackRock, Charles Schwab Corp. and Fidelity Investments.

All of which helps explain why Buckley is making such an effort with the burgeoning business of financial advice.

New Lines
Personal Advisor Services, as the business is known, has attracted $275 billion in assets since launching in 2015.

It charges fees equal to 0.3% of a customer’s assets, or about $150 a year for the minimum $50,000 portfolio. At Fidelity, advisory fees for similar services are 0.5% or more.