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Are You Still with Vanguard, and Are You Concerned?

February 6, 2025 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

By MP Studio @ Adobe Stock

Originally posted June 14, 2024.

A long time ago, Vanguard founder Jack Bogle came up with a novel idea for a mutual fund company. Keep fees low, passively mimic the market, and let the shareholders mutually own the company. Then he went out to tell the world about his anti-Wall Street creation and thankfully had help along the way.

In his monthly newsletter Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report (IR), Dick Young echoed Bogle’s low-cost investing approach to his tens of thousands of readers. According to Bogle, Dick Young brought more investors into the Vanguard fold than any other newsletter writer. IR was sophisticated but still packaged in an easy-to-understand format investors could trust. Dick’s recommendations for Vanguard held weight with readers.

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Fast forward to today, when the pressure on Vanguard to create other sources of revenue is huge. Passive index funds/ETFs have been a wild success. That success inspired a lot of competition, and that competition brought lower fees, which have been driven down close to zero dollars. Now Vanguard is bringing in a rainmaker from BlackRock to man the ship.

The reality of passive investing is that the passive index fund has become a commodity. Passive indexes are navigated with the intelligence of a self-driving car. All’s good until something wrong happens. And not everyone’s ready for that. Not everyone understands how dangerous trillions upon trillions of dollars can be when it’s stuffed into the same car.

This means those still with Vanguard should undergo a necessary reality check: who’s running your money? If you have money there, you see the emails, you see the hard sell to become your active manager with passive funds, and you see the target date funds or something similar being offered. The reversal for more fees continues.

What you don’t typically see recommended are the Vanguard Wellesley or Wellington funds. They’re managed by The Wellington Group, up the road from me in Boston, MA. Vanguard pays them as the sub-advisor.

And yet, these legendary funds can be held at my favored Fidelity Investments, which is still a family-run operation. An operation that isn’t pressured for more earnings growth.

Action Line: If you’re still with Vanguard and share my concerns, we should talk. The grass can be greener.

Originally posted on Your Survival Guy. 

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy
E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy
E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998.

E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention.

E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris.

Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com

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