Vanguard is one of the world's largest investment management 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, Vanguard is owned by the U.S.-domiciled funds, which in turn are owned by their investors. This unique structure aligns our interests with those of our investors. It drives our culture, processes, and philosophies worldwide. That alignment means we’re free to manage our clients’ investments on their behalf, since we don’t need to generate returns for outside owners or public shareholders. So whenever our funds outperform the competition, Vanguard investors keep more of the returns they earn on their investments.
Stability and experience: Superior performance is an important goal, but how a company arrives at that goal is just as important. At Vanguard, our focus on the long-term needs of our clients requires us to take a disciplined approach to managing their assets. And this discipline means we never take on undue risks with our investors’ money or compromise our integrity for short-term gain. Instead, we design and manage enduring, high-quality investments that can generate superior, sustained performance over time.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: We also use our global scale to continually lower the cost of our investments. For us, lowering costs isn’t a short-term tactic; it’s how we do business. It’s been that way since we began, and our commitment to driving down costs remains strong. And research shows that lower-cost investments outperform higher-cost alternatives—which means that the more we drive down costs, the better investors’ chances for investment success.
Client-first culture: Rather than being publicly traded or owned by a small group of individuals, Vanguard is owned by the funds, which in turn are owned by their investors. This unique structure aligns our interests with those of our investors. It drives our culture, processes, and philosophies worldwide.That alignment means we’re free to manage our clients’ investments on their behalf, since we don’t need to generate returns for outside owners or public shareholders. So whenever our funds outperform the competition, Vanguard investors keep more of the returns they earn on their investments.
Note: The data included in this section have not been audited by an independent third party.