- Types of accounts managed
- Eligible 401(k)s, traditional IRAs, rollover IRAs, Roth IRAs, individual or joint taxable accounts
- Minimum investment requirements
- $3,000 - $50,000
- Annual fees
- 0.2% - 0.4% AUM fees + $25
Vanguard offers two types of financial advising: a robo-advisor and a personal advisor. Both offer personalized management of eligible 401(k)s and IRAs. Depending on the type of advising you choose, different minimum investments and fees apply. Most accounts will also have a $20 yearly account service fee on top of advisory fees. However, this fee can be eliminated by signing up for e-delivery of statements and other Vanguard notices.
Vanguard’s robo-advisor is a 100% digital advisor account and is managed through a Vanguard Brokerage Account. You need a minimum of $3,000 to open an account. The service costs 0.20% in advisory fees on the assets you authorize Vanguard to manage on your behalf. New customers will pay no advisory fees during their first 90 days.
For the personal advisor services, investors will need at least $50,000 to enroll. But these advisors won’t work with every type of investment, such as non-Vanguard mutual funds or individual bonds. Advisory fees cost 0.35% annually for an all-ETF account and 0.4% for an ETF/mutual fund mix. With personal advisor services, you receive access to financial advisors and investment coaching. Additionally, you receive real-time goal tracking and automated tax-loss harvesting, which is the selling of an underperforming investment to reduce your taxable capital gains.
We appreciate these factors of Vanguard financial advisor accounts:
- There are no advisory fees for 90 days with the robo-advisor.
- The robo-advisor has a low account minimum.
- There are environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment options.
- There’s a high account minimum for the personal advisor services.
- Some investment typess are excluded.
- There’s a $25 account service fee for most accounts, though it can be waived.
Customers chose Vanguard because it was easy to roll over their 401(k)s or switch from a competitor’s account to Vanguard. Many are happy with the options of ETFs and stocks and how well their portfolios have performed.
One Georgia customer in their 70s felt comfortable using Vanguard for their retirement account, saying: “We have a live advisor versus a robo-advisor. … After answering his questionnaire he put us in 60/40 stocks/bonds. After one year we are up 15%.”
Many complained about the website being too clunky and not intuitive. Others felt that the customer service department had gone downhill since they first became customers, saying that they used to be able to connect to knowledgeable advisors quickly but now are redirected to a hotline of unknowledgeable service reps.