Time constraints pull Bogle off Advizent board

John “Jack” Bogle has resigned as chairman of the board of standards at Advizent LLC, the adviser marketing cooperative. In a statement Friday, Advizent said Mr. Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group Inc. and chairman of Advizent's independent board of standards, had stepped down due to time constraints. “Because of substantial other commitments, he is not able to devote the necessary time and effort to our project,” the statement said. “However, Jack continues to strongly support Advizent's mission to educate investors and hold advisers to high standard practices.” The July appointment of Mr. Bogle as chairman was something of a coup for Advizent, the upstart adviser marketing cooperative co-founded by Charles Goldman, the former head of Schwab Advisor Services, and Steve Lockshin, founder of Convergent Wealth Advisors and Fortigent LLC. Mr. Bogle is known as an outspoken advocate for investors. Mr. Goldman was on vacation and unavailable Friday. Frank Lentini, a spokesman for Advizent, had no further information about Mr. Bogle's departure but said the cooperative should be able to provide more information about its membership standards in February. The other members of Advizent's board of standards include Robert Kaplan, professor of management practice at Harvard Business School and a former vice chairman of The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Robert Levy, chairman of the Cato Institute's board of directors and founder of CDA Investment Technologies. Advizent's principals have promised that members will have to meet strict fiduciary requirements and that its standards will include transparency of compensation, appropriate controls, some amount of support services, succession plans and an independent custodian. Advizent, a for-profit organization, is looking for members with $100 million or more in assets. Its stated goal is to create a budget of $30 million to $50 million to build the Advizent brand. Members will pay between $25,000 and $100,000 a year in dues, depending on size. Advizent is also soliciting custodians and money managers for support.