Ignoring a perfect June day and turning their back on the sunshine glinting off Lake Michigan, hundreds of financial professionals are gathering in the basement of Chicago's Hyatt Regency hotel for the annual Morningstar Investment Conference.

A standing-room only crowd packed its way into see John Bogle, Vanguard founder and mutual fund visionary. They must be gluttons for punishment, because he delivered the expected broadside against the fund industry. His complaints are familiar--fees are too high, firms spend too much time on "peripheral" matters instead of managing, and "speculative" investments are replacing long-term strategies. It turns out that these concerns are nothing new for Bogle, either. His senior thesis from Princeton, being reprinted this year, raised the same issues.

News of Bank of America's purchase of Marsico Asset Management is echoing throughout the conference. Two reactions are in evidence. First, astonishment of the price that was paid (or over-paid). It seems that figures like "$950 million" and "12x assets" get the attention of those in the mutual fund business. The second reaction, which occurs only after the price has been digested, wonders whether the current atmosphere of merger-mania is good for the fund industry and for investors. Jack Bogle is concerned that too much of the purchase price will go to Tom Marsico, instead of his shareholders. It's no surprise to hear that sentiment from Bogle, but his concerns were echoed by Morningstar analyst Kunal Kapoor, who seems too young to share Bogle's cynicism.

Exchange-traded funds are much discussed here, as elsewhere. One concern that was expressed both by Bogle and by Scott Cooley of Morningstar is that the share price can diverge significantly from the actual asset value. Bogle cited instances where the divergence reached 40%, a figure that only added fire to his much-publicized disdain for those funds.

Morningstar used its home-court advantage to comandeer the prime spot on the exhibit floor to promote its upcoming MorningstarAdvisor.com site. A July 24 lunch is planned for Phase I, the "Community" portion of the site, under the direction of Bob Clark. According to Morningstar, the site will provide a range of services for financial advisors, including editorial content (Bob Zeres will be in charge), bulletin boards, and a "virtual trade show" with links to fund companies. Phase II, which will feature a variety of interactive tools based on the Principia platform, is planned for late October. 

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