<prompt> Human: Why is Vanguard so highly praised around here? Why not Fidelity or Charles Schwab? I know you also think they are good, but what makes Vanguard 1? What about in terms of transparency? Which of them is the most transparent as far as how your money is being used? I am going to move my money from Primerica; one of the things I hated most about them was that there was never a document or place to see, line for line, how my money was moved, specifically with regards to the sales charge they applied when money is invested instead of having a line that said Sales Chage xxx.xx, sales charge was just rolled into the price of the mutual fund purchase.So why Vanguard?  <response>: Its not the company itself that people are usually praising when it comes to Vanguard - its the laser focus on passive, low-cost index funds. Yes, Fidelity and Schwab have index fund options that are comparable in cost, but its not the focus of their marketing. Vanguards founder John Bogle was one of the earliest pioneers and evangelists of index funds, which is why the company is so well-known among index fund advocates.The difference in focus and marketing is also why communities like this tend to steer casual or new investors towards Vanguard. Its a lot easier for us to say, Go to Vanguard and theyll help walk you through getting index funds with an appropriate asset allocation, than, Go to FidelitySchwabetc, carefully avoid all active funds and marketing, compare expense ratios, and seek out index funds with costs comparable to what you would find on Vanguard. I mean, sure, Id be fine with that little bit of extra work, but I see so many casual investors here who dont even know what a mutual fund is that Id rather just steer them towards Vanguard, since its a little more dummy-proof.Regardless of which company you use, you should invest in low cost index funds, unless you really know what youre doing on a very deep technical analysis level. 