Vanguard has signalled a strategic tilt towards more directly controlled advice and distribution after flagging the launch of a new division last week headed by former Fidelity head of personal investing, Joanna Rotenberg.
The passive investment giant already oversees about US$900 billion through a range of advisory options in several jurisdictions from a robo-service through to a full high net worth offering but the dedicated Vanguard Advice & Wealth Management arm marks a heightened focus on vertical integration.
Rotenberg, who ended a two-year stint as head of personal investing for Fidelity last December, takes up the new role for Vanguard in January.
Before Fidelity she spent more than 11 years at BMO in various roles, rising to lead the Canadian bank’s wealth management unit, after almost nine years at global consultancy firm, McKinsey.
In a statement, the recently appointed Vanguard chief, Salim Ramji, said: “For nearly five decades, Vanguard has been a positive force in democratizing investing, helping to give tens of millions of investors the best chance for investment success.
“With the addition of Joanna to our leadership team, our goal is to further democratize our advice and wealth management offerings for our clients through enhanced technologies and offers – with the same client zeal that Vanguard has long been known for.”
Ramji replaced Tim Buckley atop Vanguard earlier this year, joining the indexer from rival BlackRock where he was most recently global head of its exchange-traded fund (ETF) business, iShares.
Prior to leading iShares he ran the BlackRock financial advice division for four years.
Along with the new advice division, Vanguard also revealed a senior executive reshuffle, shifting current institution investor group head, John James, to lead workplace and adviser solutions. Lauren Valente moves from Vanguard human relations chief to replace James while Jon Couture joins from Principal Financial Group to fill the HR gap.
Meanwhile, Matt Benchner will remain as head of the Vanguard personal investor business “with a focus on the company’s digital client experience, brokerage, cash and savings solutions, and education savings”.
In 2020 Vanguard gave notice to institutional investors in Australia and NZ ahead of the planned launch of a superannuation fund across the ditch.
The move saw more than A$160 billion of institutional money flee to other managers including over NZ$10 billion from KiwiSaver providers.
As at the end of June this year, the Vanguard Australia super fund reported about $1.4 billion under management on behalf of 15,810 members.
Vanguard also offers personal investor services in Australia – although not in NZ where investors typically access the manager either direct through offshore-based managed funds and ETFs or badged versions such as some NZX-listed Smart funds and a few portfolio investment entity products available on InvestNow.
Boasting more than US$9 trillion in assets, Vanguard is the second-largest funds management firm in the world.