Vanguard puts everyday investors at the center of all we do
Because of our unique ownership structure, the interests of our investors are at the center of everything we do.
The money we manage belongs to our investors.
Our company is owned by its member funds, which in turn are owned by fund shareholders. Because the investors in our funds are our owners, we can act independently and focus squarely on meeting their long-term investment needs without outside influence.
We are an asset manager, not an asset owner. The assets we manage belong to the tens of millions of individual investors who have entrusted us to grow their savings over time. Because of our ownership structure, our interests are directly aligned with helping everyday investors generate long-term returns and achieve their financial goals — whether that’s buying a house, saving for retirement, or paying for college.
Read more about the value of ownership as a Vanguard investor.
Our proven approach helps investors keep more of their returns.
Our investor-owned structure means we can offer high-quality funds and ETFs that are among the lowest-cost in the industry. In fact, we have reduced fees and investment minimums across all products, strategies, and asset classes more than 2,000 times since our founding in 1975 by Jack Bogle. Because our investors are our owners, we focus on the long term rather than quarterly results.
Read more about our history.
We believe investors should have choices.
We understand that investors have different priorities, values, and objectives, so we focus on providing a range of low-cost, high-quality investment options that investors can choose from based on their individual goals and preferences. Vanguard offers more than 280 index mutual funds and ETFs, as well as more than 120 actively managed funds and ETFs, including energy sector funds and ESG funds.
Importantly, we don’t direct the investments our clients make. Investors select the investments most appropriate for them from our broad range of options.
Read more about our proven investment approach.
We are piloting ways to give investors a greater voice in proxy voting.
A growing number of investors would like the option to weigh in on how their index funds vote on important proxy questions at the companies held in their funds. In early 2023, we began piloting ways to empower individual investors to make their voices heard in the proxy voting process. As we refine and test our approach, Vanguard is committed to gathering feedback along the way to ensure we’re meeting our clients’ needs.
Read more about our pilot program.
Our focus is on generating long-term returns.
Vanguard’s mission is to generate long-term returns for investors, while leaving management decisions to companies and policy decisions to elected officials. Our proxy votes and engagements with companies on material financial risks are based on principles of strong corporate governance as part of our effort to help our clients reach their financial goals.
Read more about our proxy voting and corporate engagement team.
Our approach to climate risk is about safeguarding investor returns.
Climate change has far-reaching economic consequences for companies and financial markets –– and therefore, for our investors. As a result, climate risk is a material financial risk for companies and their shareholders. We take this risk to our investors seriously. On behalf of the internally managed equity funds, Vanguard’s Investment Stewardship team engages with those companies to better understand how boards disclose, address, and oversee material risks –– including climate risk.
Read more about our approach to climate risk.
Sign up for updates
Get the latest news and insights from Vanguard delivered right to your inbox.
Highlighted articles
Important information:
Vanguard ETF Shares are not redeemable with the issuing Fund other than in very large aggregations worth millions of dollars. Instead, investors must buy and sell Vanguard ETF Shares in the secondary market and hold those shares in a brokerage account. In doing so, the investor may incur brokerage commissions and may pay more than net asset value when buying and receive less than net asset value when selling.
All investing is subject to risk, including possible loss of the money you invest. Funds that concentrate on a relatively narrow market sector face the risk of higher share-price volatility.
ESG portfolios are subject to ESG investment risk, which is the chance that the stocks or bonds screened by the index provider or advisor, as applicable, for ESG criteria generally will underperform the market as a whole or, in the aggregate, will trail returns of other portfolios screened for ESG criteria. The index provider or advisor assessment of a company, based on the company’s level of involvement in a particular industry or their own ESG criteria, may differ from that of other portfolios or an investor’s assessment of such company. As a result, the companies deemed eligible by the index provider or advisor may not reflect the beliefs and values of any particular investor and certain screens may not exhibit positive or favorable ESG characteristics. The evaluation of companies for ESG screening or integration is dependent on the timely and accurate reporting of ESG data by the companies. The advisor may not be successful in assessing and identifying companies that have or will have a positive impact or support a given position. In some circumstances, companies could ultimately have a negative or no impact or support of a given position. The weight given to ESG factors for active non-ESG funds may vary across types of investments, industries, regions and issuers; may change over time; and not every ESG factor may be identified or evaluated. Where ESG risk factor analysis is used as one part of an overall investment process (as is the case for actively managed equity and fixed income non-ESG Funds), such Funds may still invest in securities of issuers that all market participants may not view as ESG-focused or that may be viewed as having a high ESG risk profile.
