Despite the Vanguard structure being what it is, I don't know that it's necessarily that much more consumer-friendly than it's competitors. Vanguard is privately owned by the funds, but executive pay isn't disclosed among other things. Schwab is publicly traded, which you would think makes it's operation a lot more transparent. As far as Intelligent Advisory goes, my understanding is you can just enroll the minimum required in the plan and they'll still talk to you about all your assets. You can increase the stock allocation to something like 92%-94% to minimize the "cash drag", and with today's rate you're not missing on much vs. other cash equivalents.