Vanguard is one of the world's largest investment companies, offering a wide selection of low-cost mutual funds, ETFs, advice, and other 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 - is our mutual 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 U.S.-domiciled Vanguard funds. Those funds, in turn, are owned by their shareholders.
This unique mutual structure aligns our interests with our investors' interests and drives our culture, philosophy, and policies throughout the Vanguard organization globally. As a result, investors benefit from Vanguard's stability and experience, low costs, and client focus.
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's an outcome 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 cannot 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. VGI doesn't have any third-party shareholders or outside owners to answer to. This mutual structure in the United States enables us to run our funds efficiently, passing on more of your returns. Vanguard's scale also helps keep costs low. As our assets under management increase, we have the ability to reduce expense ratios for the investors in our funds.
Client focus: VGI's mutual 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 mutual structure in the United States allows us to manage our funds at a low 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.