Vanguard to acquire Altruist frequently asked questions

Vanguard and Altruist have entered into an agreement for Vanguard to acquire Altruist, an AI-forward wealth technology and custody platform for financial advisors. 

Acquiring Altruist is part of Vanguard’s work to serve end investors, as millions of our investor owners choose to work with financial advisors. The acquisition of Altruist will help us better serve those investors by meeting them where they already are. And we know that many more investors would benefit from affordable access to high-quality advice, and Altruist has a proven track record of bringing increased competition, innovation, and access to the advice space.

Altruist brings together a purpose-built platform, specialized talent, established advisor relationships, and years of expertise translating the complexity of advice into better workflows and client experiences.

Altruist has demonstrated that it can help reduce the cost and complexity of delivering advice, and Vanguard will help accelerate that mission with greater resources, reach, and long-term support.

Vanguard will benefit from direct access to Altruist’s innovative technology and advisor platform which will allow the company to better serve our investors.

Altruist shares Vanguard’s mission of helping investors achieve investment success. Altruist is pursuing that mission by making independent financial advice better, more affordable, and accessible to everyone. Millions of Vanguard investors choose to work with financial advisors, and many more would benefit from high-quality financial advice. Together, Vanguard and Altruist will continue to lower costs, increase competition and innovation, and do the right thing to produce better investment outcomes for end investors.

Vanguard has known Altruist for years both as an investor in their company and through our relationships with the financial advisors they serve. We believed early in the mission, the leadership team, and the potential to help advisors serve clients in a better way. We have seen the innovation and increased access that Altruist has brought to the space.

As Altruist matured, the opportunity emerged to move from being an investor of the business to becoming its long-term home.

Many of Vanguard’s investor owners choose to work with financial advisors, including RIAs, and with this investment, we can better serve them by meeting them where they already are.

And we know that there are millions of more people, including investors in Vanguard funds, who could benefit from the confidence, perspective, personal guidance and human touch of an advisor, but there are simply not enough advisors to meet the need.

AI and other enabling technologies can help close that gap by helping advisors do their job in a way that continues to achieve great outcomes at much greater scale. 

Acquiring and investing in Altruist will allow us to advance our support of advisors in a new way: by helping to bring more competition and innovation to the advisor custody and advisor technology space.

Vanguard will also benefit from direct access to Altruist’s innovative technology and advisor platform which will allow us to better serve our investors.

Historically, our work with RIAs has centered on helping them build better portfolios and achieve better outcomes for their clients through our investment products, research, and support. 

Altruist combines a proven platform, specialized talent, advisor relationships, and years of expertise that would take significant time and investment to replicate internally. While a partnership would provide access to parts of the platform, an acquisition gives us the ability to invest in its long-term growth and development and to harness the power of its technology capabilities for our investors. 

After six years as a strategic investor in Altruist, we believe acquiring the company is the best way to serve Vanguard investors, accelerate innovation for advisors, and help drive more competition and innovation in the RIA custody space.

As Altruist matured, the opportunity emerged to move from being an investor of the business to becoming its long-term home.

This does not signal a change in Vanguard’s mission or a departure from its focus on serving individual investors and helping them achieve investment success.

This acquisition will help Vanguard make financial advice better, more affordable, and accessible to everyone, whether through an advisor at Vanguard or elsewhere.

Direct access to Altruist’s innovative technology and advisor platform which will allow Vanguard to better serve our retail investors.

Until the transaction closes, nothing changes.

Vanguard is continually looking to improve our technology and innovate how we serve investors and the investors we advise. Acquiring Altruist will allow us to accelerate those efforts. As our service offering evolves, we will communicate those changes.