The Ledger
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Vanguard and rival index funds own 24% of the US stock market
“Vanguard is the largest shareholder of most U.S. Corporations, and together with the other big index funds like BlackRock, State Street, and Fidelity, they own 24% of the entire U.S. Stock market.”
84% of Vanguard funds have outperformed their peers over the past decade
“84% of Vanguard's funds have outperformed their peers over the last 10 years.”
Vanguard absorbed $1.2 trillion in inflows between 2014 and 2019
“From 2014 to 2019, Vanguard takes in 1.2 trillion in cash inflows versus five hundred billion for the whole rest of the industry combined.”
Vanguard pays S&P Global up to $400 million annually for index licensing
“People estimate that Vanguard pays S&P Global something like three to four hundred million dollars per year, and is their single largest licensing client, and the licensing segment of their business as a whole does 1.85 billion dollars a year, and to your poin…”
Much of Vanguard's AUM is held via third-party brokerages like Fidelity
“So many of their customers, of their AUM, don't actually have a relationship with the company. They are invested in Vanguard ETFs via their direct relationship with a different brokerage, primarily Fidelity.”
Over 90% of Vanguard's investor capital remains strictly US-based
“They have 20,000 employees, they have fifty million investors worldwide, but notably, the last thing I'll say is, a little over 90% of their investors And their investor capital is in the US. So they're not nearly as global as BlackRock or Invesco or Franklin …”
Industry fund fees average 44 basis points, 6.5x higher than Vanguard
“Vanguard's average ETF and mutual fund expense ratio is now down to 0.07% with some ETFs, like the one that I'm in, the VLO is 0.03%. The industry average across mutual funds and ETF is 44 basis points. So that is six and a half times Vanguard's average.”
Wellington Management continues to manage Vanguard's Wellington Fund today
“And then the best part, Wellington Management Still does the investment management for the Wellington fund within Vanguard, even to this day.”
Jack Bogle ran Vanguard for 128 days while awaiting a heart transplant
“He waits a 128 days in the hospital waiting for a heart transplant. And he keeps working the whole time. He hasn't officially transitioned out of the CEO role and given it to Brennan yet.”
Vanguard hired BlackRock's Saleem Ramji as its first outside CEO in history
“In May of 2024, Vanguard made another big CEO announcement that they were bringing on the first outside CEO in the firm's entire 50 year history, Saleem Ramji, from BlackRock, where he was, until that point in time, head of the iShares division.”
Vanguard manages $12 trillion overall, including $2 trillion in active funds
“So total assets is now 12 trillion dollars. Two trillion of that, interestingly, is active.”
Vanguard did not lay anyone off during the 2008 financial crisis
“First of all, you should know Vanguard did not lay anyone off during the financial crisis, which is kind of unbelievable.”
99% of Vanguard's assets were accumulated after Jack Bogle stepped down
“99% of Vanguard's AUM came after Jack stepped down.”
Vanguard financed its corporate campus using construction loans from its own fundholders
“I mean, even Vanguard's real estate on their campus in Malvern, when they were constructing that, they tapped the shareholders, they tapped the fund holders for essentially construction loans.”
Vanguard managed $5 trillion across 20 million clients at Bogle's death
“At the time of his death, Vanguard managed an aggregate of five trillion dollars over twenty million clients.”