Vanguard is one of the world's largest global investment companies, offering a wide selection of low-cost index and actively managed mutual funds and ETFs, along with advice and other investment-related services. We offer our products and services directly to individuals, as well as to financial professionals and to corporate and institutional investors.
What sets Vanguard apart---and lets us put investors first around the world---is our ownership structure in the United States. Rather than being publicly traded or owned by a small group of individuals, The Vanguard Group, Inc. (VGI), is owned by Vanguard's US-domiciled funds and ETFs. Those funds, in turn, are owned by their investors.
This unique mutual structure aligns our interests with those of our investors and drives our culture, philosophy, and policies throughout the Vanguard organization globally. As a result, investors around the world benefit from Vanguard's stability and experience, low costs, and client focus, as the following describes in more detail:
Stability and experience: Vanguard does not pursue short-term asset growth at the expense of existing investors’ interests. For us, asset growth is not a goal; it is a by-product of doing the right thing for investors. Vanguard established the world's first index mutual fund for individual investors in 1976 and has been a leader in low-cost index investing ever since. Vanguard also launched the first funds based on bond and international indexes and, over the last decade, has extended its index management expertise to ETFs. Vanguard leverages the scale, experience, and resources of our established global business.
Low costs: Investors can't control the markets, but they can control the costs of investing. Providing low-cost investments isn't a pricing strategy for Vanguard---it’s how we do business. We are able to keep costs low because of our unique ownership structure in the United States, which allows us to return profits to investors through lower expenses. Vanguard's scale also helps keep costs low. As our assets under management increase globally, we are able to reduce expense ratios for the investors in our funds.
Client focus: VGI's ownership structure aligns our interests with those of our clients. Because Vanguard is not publicly traded, we can extend the benefits of that structure to our clients around the world. Vanguard's unique corporate structure in the United States allows us to manage our US-domiciled funds at cost, giving clients the opportunity to receive the best value. Clients come first because clients can come first.
Note: The data included in this section have not been audited by an independent third party.