The house that Jack built

The house that Jack built
Commentary: Time is on your side, Vanguard's Bogle tells investorsBy Chuck Jaffe, MarketWatch

On whether investors should be upset with fund managers, financial advisers or both:

"Defeat has 1,000 fathers. We really don't have much choice but to trust the investor to make his own asset allocation, with or without the help of a financial adviser. I don't think you can expect the fund manager to do it. ... Letting one fund manager decide for all investors how much to have in stocks or cash doesn't really seem to work for most investors. There are not many managers who can do it, for starters, but it's just impossible to know the needs.

"You have to be prepared to take the bad times with the good. There are a lot of good active managers who failed last year -- Longleaf, Marty Whitman {Third Avenue funds], Dodge & Cox, Weitz -- and if you are going to be with an active manager and have found someone who has the values you believe in and who is in the investment business and not the marketing business, then go with it but be prepared to lose one year out of three. I think most investors can't handle that; they are their own worst enemies.

"But advisers don't help this, I think. They hold a magnifying glass up to the worst of things. You say 'God I have to get out of here,' and they say 'Go now' instead of saying 'Stay the course.'"