Vanguard ditches advice service

[GeoffF100]

Vanguard has ditched its advice service:

https://www.ftadviser.com/companies/202 ... nning-arm/

After careful consideration, we have concluded that our clients are looking for other, more adaptable forms of financial planning from Vanguard.

My comment was always that anything that might justify taking advice was excluded. They had nearly half a million customers nonetheless. The service has been on their website without any links from the main pages for some time. I expect that there is a story to tell here.

[GeoffF100]

Oops. It is their platform that has nearly half a million customers. The advice service was probably a damp squib. Not many takers.

[Alaric]

The advice service was probably a damp squib. Not many takers.

Vanguard's USP has always been that it minimises the amounts taken off investment performance for management etc. Advice and charging for it doesn't fit in too well with that business model.

[GeoffF100]

The advice service was probably a damp squib. Not many takers.

Vanguard's USP has always been that it minimises the amounts taken off investment performance for management etc. Advice and charging for it doesn't fit in too well with that business model.

Jack Bogle said that people do not need advice, but some think they do, so Vanguard provides it for those who think they need it.

[CliffEdge]

Just when it might be useful

[gpadsa]

The FT article on 1 Mar says it was a 'retirement advice service' https://www.ft.com/content/236138e6-48b ... 1ed1fa5682
- min. invested amount £50k
- 0.79% pa fees
- 485,000 customers signed up
- around 1/3 of which were aged under 30

The final item on that list is the one that surprised me - good on those 150,000 already thinking about retirement/pensions and have saved quite a lot at that age & I am sure they will find a good home (mass migration to HL maybe)

gpadsa

[EthicsGradient]

The FT article on 1 Mar says it was a 'retirement advice service' https://www.ft.com/content/236138e6-48b ... 1ed1fa5682
- min. invested amount £50k
- 0.79% pa fees
- 485,000 customers signed up
- around 1/3 of which were aged under 30

The final item on that list is the one that surprised me - good on those 150,000 already thinking about retirement/pensions and have saved quite a lot at that age & I am sure they will find a good home (mass migration to HL maybe)

gpadsa

No, I think you've misread the article. It says:

The company has refused to disclose how much money will be repaid or how many of the 485,000 customers that signed up to the Vanguard personal investor platform will be affected by the withdrawal of the financial planning service which will close on May 31.
...
Vanguard said its UK clients were looking for “more adaptable forms of financial planning” because many of these investors were still relatively young. Around a third of the 485,000 customers on Vanguard’s personal investor platform are aged under 30.

So the 485k customers are everyone on its "personal investor platform", not those using it for pensions, let alone "personalised retirement saving advice".

[GeoffF100]

The FT article on 1 Mar says it was a 'retirement advice service'

That is not how it was marketed. It was marketed as a "financial advice service":

https://www.ftadviser.com/your-industry ... ll-in-fee/

[EthicsGradient]

The FT article on 1 Mar says it was a 'retirement advice service'

That is not how it was marketed. It was marketed as a "financial advice service":

https://www.ftadviser.com/your-industry ... ll-in-fee/

They market it as basically about retirement: https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/arti ... l-planning

[gpadsa]

No, I think you've misread the article.

A shame I misread it & the number of forward-planning youthful types is likely to be small-ish

gpadsa

[GeoffF100]

Yes, that old article makes it clear that the advice service was targeted at retirement. IIRC it excluded people who were coming up to retirement. Vanguard has launched a managed ISA service:

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/inve ... anaged-isa

https://www.ftadviser.com/investments/2 ... -investors

Almost as expensive (0.6% in total). Guidance, not advice. Excludes retirement planning. They allocate one of five portfolios (LifeStrategy?). Currently open to new customers only. It is hard to see why anyone would bother with that. Vanguard does not seem to be able to compete with Nutmeg:

https://www.nutmeg.com/nuggets/bespoke- ... -everyone/

[GeoffF100]

Just to muddy the waters further, that managed ISA article says:

"Last year, Vanguard also moved into the UK advice space. The company launched its restricted advice proposition, charging just 0.79 per cent "all in", in April 2021, though it has confined itself to investment advice rather than financial planning for now."

The article mentions LifeStrategy Model Portfolios:

https://ifamagazine.com/article/why-van ... -advisers/

Vanguard does not appear to be pushing these directly to investors.

Guidance vs advice:

https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/unders ... nvestments