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Vanguard Review
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Vanguard brokerage review »
Vanguard Pros
Commission-free trading. Vanguard charges zero trading fees on many online securities transactions, including online stock and ETF trades.
Excellent portfolio management service. Vanguard stands out among modern brokerage firms, especially for large accounts.
Vanguard's own lineup of funds. Vanguard mutual funds and ETFs can be bought and sold online without Vanguard Brokerage commissions, although some fund-level fees may still apply.
Vanguard Cons
Customer service could be improved. Vanguard’s support isn’t as good as what other brokers provide.
Basic trading tools. Vanguard emphasizes long-term investing, which shows in its simple software.
Investment Vehicles
Vanguard prioritizes fund trading rather than short-term or specialized products. This includes mutual funds and exchange-traded funds from Vanguard and other providers, plus closed-end funds.
It also offers stocks, options, CDs, and fixed-income securities, including U.S. Treasury securities, government agency bonds, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, mortgage-backed securities, and unit investment trusts.
However, Vanguard does not offer direct trading in several other products, such as physical precious metals, forex, contracts for difference, futures, options on futures, or direct
cryptocurrencies. Vanguard does allow most third-party cryptocurrency ETFs and mutual funds on its brokerage platform.
Account Types
Vanguard has multiple account types, though some include fees not commonly seen at other firms. These include individual, joint, trust, organization, UGMA/UTMA, estate, and education savings accounts. Some brokerage accounts can also apply for margin.
For retirement, there are Roth, traditional, SEP, SIMPLE, inherited, and individual 401(k) accounts. For education, investors can use UGMA/UTMA accounts and 529 plans.
The regular brokerage account has a $25 yearly fee, avoidable by going paperless. SIMPLE IRAs have a $25 charge per Vanguard mutual fund in each account, which can be waived in certain conditions.
SEP IRA brokerage accounts have a $25 annual account fee, also waivable in some cases. The individual 401(k) at Vanguard has fund-based charges.
Vanguard does not provide Health Savings Accounts, ABLE accounts, or Coverdell Education Savings Accounts.
Portfolio Management
If you’re not comfortable making your own trades, you can hire Vanguard’s professional managers. Vanguard Personal Advisor has a $50,000 minimum and charges an approximate advisory fee of 0.30% to 0.31% for an all-index portfolio. Vanguard Personal Advisor Wealth Management requires $5 million or more and has marginal fee tiers that start at 0.30% and drop to 0.05% on assets above $25 million.
You can speak with an advisor by phone, email, or video chat.
Downsides include a lack of physical branches and a high minimum balance requirement for some advisory services.
Updated on 10/14/2026.
Arthur Chachuna is a professional personal finance blogger, and the owner of Brokerage-Review.com.
He has been an avid investor for 25 years, and has a background in both applied math and programming.
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