Vanguard Adds Fees for Some Brokerage Services

What You Need to Know

Vanguard’s brokerage will impose various new fees in July, according to a fee schedule.
Clients with significant assets may avoid the new charges.
A $25 fee to trade Vanguard ETFs and mutual funds by phone will hit seniors, a critic suggests.

Vanguard Group customers wanting to buy or sell Vanguard mutual or exchange-traded funds over the phone will have to pay $25 per trade effective July 1, unless they have at least $1 million in the investment firm’s ETFs or mutual funds.

The Independent Vanguard Adviser, a weekly publication for Vanguard investors, posted the company’s updated brokerage fee schedule this week with an article citing various service charges being imposed in July.

The $25 broker-assisted commission for Vanguard ETF and mutual fund trades doesn’t apply to accounts enrolled in a Vanguard-affiliated advisory service, the fee schedule says. Vanguard currently charges nothing for trading its own funds over the phone.

“Vanguard is committed to helping clients navigate toward secure, simpler, and more seamless digital pathways, and constantly evaluates our brokerage services and products, inclusive of the commissions and fee schedule,” a Vanguard spokesperson told ThinkAdvisor via email, adding that Vanguard mutual funds and ETFs could still be traded online without commissions.

Related: Fidelity to Charge $100 Fee on 9 Firms’ ETFs

“While Vanguard’s mutual funds and ETFs remain low-cost, Vanguard Brokerage Services is a different story as fees, particularly for smaller investors, keep cropping up,” IVA editor Jeff DeMaso wrote in the May 1 newsletter.

“I suppose this is the ‘new’ Vanguard. But, frankly, it feels like we are being nickeled and dimed,” DeMaso wrote.