Vanguard Group

Who owns Vanguard Group?
Vanguard Group is owned by the Vanguard funds, which are in turn owned by the investors in those funds. This unique client-owned structure means Vanguard's clients are effectively the owners of the management company. Vanguard has no external shareholders, no parent company, and is not publicly traded.

Is Vanguard publicly traded?
No, Vanguard Group is not publicly traded and has no stock listing. The company's unique structure means it is owned by its funds' investors rather than public shareholders. This structure allows Vanguard to operate at cost rather than maximizing profits for external shareholders.

How much does Vanguard manage?
Vanguard manages approximately $10 trillion in global assets under management as of 2024, making it one of the world's two largest asset managers alongside BlackRock.

Who founded Vanguard Group?
Vanguard Group was founded by John C. Bogle in 1975. Bogle is considered the father of index fund investing, having launched the first index fund available to individual investors in 1976. He led Vanguard until 1996 and remained a vocal advocate for investors until his death in January 2019.

What is Vanguard's largest fund?
Vanguard's largest funds include the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund and the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (which tracks the S&P 500), each with trillions of dollars in assets. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) and Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) are among the largest ETFs in the world.

Why are Vanguard's fees so low?
Vanguard's fees are low because of its unique client-owned structure. Since Vanguard is owned by its funds' investors rather than external shareholders, the company has no profit motive. Any revenue generated above operating costs is returned to investors through lower expense ratios, rather than being distributed as dividends to external shareholders.

Vanguard Group was founded in 1975 by John C. Bogle, who had previously been chairman of Wellington Management Company. Bogle was ousted from Wellington in 1974 following a poorly timed merger with Ivest Fund, which had suffered significant losses. Rather than leaving the investment industry, Bogle used the opportunity to create a new kind of investment company built on a fundamentally different model.

Bogle's key insight was that most actively managed mutual funds failed to outperform their benchmark indexes over time, and that the fees charged by active managers were a significant drag on investor returns. He proposed creating a fund company that would be owned by its funds' investors, eliminating the profit motive that drove other fund companies to charge high fees.

Vanguard was incorporated in September 1974 and began operations in May 1975. The company initially managed the Wellington Fund and other funds previously managed by Wellington Management, but under a new structure in which Vanguard handled administration while Wellington Management continued to handle investment management.

In 1976, Vanguard launched the First Index Investment Trust, the first index fund available to individual investors. The fund tracked the S&P 500 index and was designed to provide market returns at minimal cost. The fund was initially derided by the investment industry as "Bogle's Folly" and raised only $11 million in its initial offering, far below the $150 million target. Despite the slow start, the fund would eventually become the Vanguard 500 Index Fund and grow to become one of the largest funds in the world.

Throughout the 1980s, Vanguard expanded its lineup of low-cost index funds and began offering bond index funds. The company's client-owned structure and focus on low costs attracted growing assets as investors became more cost-conscious.

In 1992, Vanguard launched the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund, which tracked the entire U.S. stock market rather than just the S&P 500. This fund became one of Vanguard's most popular products and a model for total market index investing.

Vanguard entered the ETF market in 2001, launching the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI). The company's ETFs quickly became among the most popular in the market due to their low expense ratios.

John Bogle retired as CEO in 1996 and as Chairman in 1999, though he remained a vocal advocate for index investing and investor rights until his death in January 2019. Under subsequent CEOs including Jack Brennan, Bill McNabb, and Tim Buckley, Vanguard continued to grow and expand its product offerings.

By 2024, Vanguard managed approximately $10 trillion in global assets under management, making it one of the world's two largest asset managers alongside BlackRock. The company's growth has been driven by the secular shift from active to passive investing, which Bogle pioneered.