On the character of icons

The tragic, untimely passing of Kobe Bryant elicited an outpouring of grief that was stunning in its breadth and depth. Yes, the mourning reflected acknowledgement of Mr. Bryant’s remarkable athletic achievements, but people don’t weep over impressive numbers in sports almanacs. The loss of Kobe Bryant tore up millions of fans and millions of others who aren’t sports aficionados because of his principles and the way he dealt with others off the basketball court. He was truly an icon — a person worthy of deep respect and admiration.

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What makes someone an icon? Achievements in the conventional sense certainly are important, as is an awareness by many people of the person responsible for those achievements. But the sine qua non of an icon is his or her integrity and honor as a human being. People were so moved by Kobe Bryant because he was a great person, not just a great basketball player.

Because their public awareness is so high sports stars and show business celebrities can be natural candidates for icon status — or, probably even more easily, notoriety. Public awareness can also help humanitarians and those who make life-saving scientific breakthroughs become icons. Consider Mother Teresa and Jonas Salk, for example. Businesspeople have a tougher time making the icon grade since most are not in the media spotlight and because they are judged chiefly by bottom-line results, not character.

But business icons most definitely exist. And if the general public is not aware of such giants, those within particular industries certainly are. Since 2016, the InvestmentNews Icons & Innovators program has paid tribute to the visionaries who have shaped, transformed and made outstanding contributions to the financial advice profession. There have been several.

[More: Jud Bergman remembered, and what happened at Envestnet when the CEO suddenly died]

Past honorees included the late John Bogle, founder of Vanguard and father of index funds, which for years were considered a joke by mutual fund and brokerage firms, if not essentially pointless. Why, they scoffed, would investors want “average” when they could do better in an actively managed fund?

Slowly at first, but then with greater speed, ordinary investors came to be persuaded by Mr. Bogle’s argument that average and cheap was a better value proposition than paying more for performance that sometimes exceeded market averages and sometimes didn’t. Today, Vanguard manages more than $5.6 trillion in assets and its unique investor-friendly structure, created by Mr. Bogle so that fund shareholders are the owners of Vanguard’s management company, remains.

Mr. Bogle’s dedication to the average investor and his plainspoken, modest style won over the hearts of investors, as well as their investments. To millions of Americans who built a nest egg because of his work, John Bogle remains an icon.

In this week’s issue, which covers the 2020 InvestmentNews honorees, we pay tribute to another icon of the financial advice business, the late Jud Bergman. As the founder, chairman and chief executive of Envestnet, Mr. Bergman was an entrepreneur with a vision. He believed that the registered investment advisory channel would grow and that RIAs would want to serve clients with a technology platform comparable to what they had at large brokerage firms — and one that could even be better.

[More: Envestnet’s Bergman: A simple strategy in a time of change]

In 1999, that idea was greeted with skepticism. Today, Envestnet serves 3,500 institutional clients and 96,000 financial advisers, responsible for $3 trillion in assets. But boasting about success was not Mr. Bergman’s style. After he and his wife, Mary Miller-Bergman, were killed in an auto accident in October, tributes to Mr. Bergman flowed in from shocked and saddened clients, competitors and others throughout the industry:

“A titan.” “Always human.” “Humble to a fault.” “Kind.” “A compassionate, generous soul.” “A true mensch.”

In other words, an icon.