Vanguard 50-year anniversary CEO letter

My grandparents were children of the depression and encouraged me to invest in the vanguard 500 for as long as I could remember.<p>Once I joined the military and had a steady paycheck I started putting some money away each month. Fast forward twenty-something years and I’m so so so grateful to have had that influence which gives me optionally in my life.<p>No doubt investing with vanguard had a huge influence on their lives and I can’t imagine how many millions have been impacted.<p>Dollar cost averaging ftw!

Do we think index funds will continue to be this financial savior for regular people in the future?<p>On the one hand total market index exposure is fantastic.<p>On the other it’s accumulating more and more with a few firms giving them exceptional power.<p>Does this unravel at some point? It’s hard to think the index itself could go bad but perhaps everything behind the scenes could fall apart?

I would love to hear from a Vanguard employee on their tech challenges, e.g., why is the client web interface significantly worse than competitors? Or is it purposeful? E.g., slow down, trade less?!

Vanguard regularly pushes the envelope on cutting fees for investment products. In 2025 they reduced their fee structure by 350M (1)<p>(1) <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;corporate.vanguard.com&#x2F;feecuts" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;corporate.vanguard.com&#x2F;feecuts</a>

Jack Bogle probably did more for the average American investor than anyone else in history (maybe barring economic policy or something). His book [0] on the history of Vanguard, it&#x27;s founding, and their growth is just a fantastic read.<p>They really did feel like this bastion of customer focused passive investing in the brokerage industry for a _long_ time. They eventually helped seriously popularize index funds to the point where every major firm offers a low cost index fund, because they have to to compete. They continued to lower their fees whenever they could to the point where VTSAX is .04% (with their ETFs being even lower).<p>He even turned down an offer to create the first ETF (I forget the guy that brought the idea to him), but he explained the idea to Bogle and Bogle politely declined because he thought that having the ability for intraday trading went against the Vanguard model of set and forget passive investing. That guy eventually went to the firm that runs SPY, if I recall from the book. They eventually began offering ETFs, obviously, but Bogle was always more of a mutual fund guy from the way that book puts it.<p>Bogle really seemed to be for the people. The man was wealthy, but not nearly as wealthy as he could be because they continued lowering fees. Their mutualized fund structure is also a massive part of that.<p>After he left Vanguard, you saw more traditional brokerage offerings - more active funds and more pushes for offer advisors to you over the phone. If I recall, Bogle expressed some displeasure in that.<p>You can tell I&#x27;m a Bogle fanboy, but I&#x27;ll gladly wear that badge.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.goodreads.com&#x2F;book&#x2F;show&#x2F;42938221-stay-the-course" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.goodreads.com&#x2F;book&#x2F;show&#x2F;42938221-stay-the-course</a>

I recently learned that index-following ETFs have a mildly concerning problem that could be equivalent to an annual fee approaching 1%. It&#x27;s caused by rebalancing that happens by, for example, stock buybacks or equity raises, which typically happen when the trade is beneficial for the active investor side of the trade. See latest video on Ben Felix&#x27;s channel.

This is basically just a marketing press release.

I find the number of people in this thread with views against index funds to be disturbing.<p>When you invest in an American stock market index fund, you get a highly diversified financial instrument at a fee that is so low that it is nearly free. You&#x27;re buying into the proceeds of the strongest cultural force that is stronger in America than anywhere else in the world: greed. The force underlying your investment is that every CEO of every public company in America is working to make you richer, because if they succeed at making you richer, they&#x27;ve made themselves <i>much</i> richer in the process. You are investing in the greed of thousands of public company CEOs. When their greed pays off, you get paid off.<p>No American president, least of all Donald Trump, is going to stop the raw power of American greed, and that&#x27;s not going to change without some kind of religious revolution of morals in a country that has become increasingly less religious over time.

They&#x27;ve completely lost my business here in the UK.<p>They are no longer the cheapest UK ETF or fund provider in any category, and their Vanguard Investor platform isn&#x27;t the cheapest either.

I love Vanguard, and I would like see more companies like them. They offer a great service to millions of people, manage vast amounts of money, but the top leaders are not multi-billionaires.

The people who destroyed value investing brag about their bubbles.

I wish vanguard would release a 0-fossil fuels fund. I&#x27;d buy it in a heartbeat

I&#x27;m deeply worried about the number of people I see online who don&#x27;t understand what Vanguard (or Blackrock, State Street, etc.) do and develop conspiracy theories instead. I think it presents a real risk for ETFs going into the future.

Are index funds the biggest amoral pyramid scheme in existence today? It’s incredible how the prevailing advice is to indiscriminately contribute to the largest profiteering organizations. Its like encouraging everyone to go to college. No way it&#x27;ll go tits up when time to retire.