For many years, the Big 3 discount investing houses -- Fidelity, Schwab and Vanguard -- operated on a simple full service vs. self service model. You could either pay them to handle your investments or you could do it yourself. But now most of those companies offer an in-between option that's like limited service. You could have knocked Clark over with a feather when he learned that Vanguard is offering some level of advice and charging you for it. That's never been their modus operandi, but now this option is available for a charge of less than 1% for those with $500K. It's like the whole investing world has turned on its axis! This new investing model among the Big 3 is really a result of the "dot.bomb" era, when people lost confidence in their financial decisions and never regained it.