Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

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Money, Money, Money: Why A Vanguard Special Report?

By

By Lazy_Bear @Adobe Stock

There isn’t a soul on the planet who did more for Vanguard than my father-in-law, Richard C. Young. Through his financial newsletter Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report, Dick advised tens of thousands monthly to consider joining Vanguard. As founder Jack Bogle told him, no one has done more for Vanguard than you.

It was simple. In Young’s opinion, he and Bogle were on a crusade to help the individual investor, the Main Street investor, get a fair shake. For starters, this meant low expense ratios, no front or back-end loads, and no 12B-1 fees. Today the landscape has changed as Vanguard, for the first time in its history, will hire an outsider to run the ship.

The new CEO, Salim Ramji, is from, of all places BlackRock where he headed their iShares or ETF expansion. Along with State Street, BlackRock and Vanguard are the big three that run trillions of dollars voting your money. The hire of Ramji is a shift away from low-cost products. It’s about coming up with new streams of fees to charge you.

Be Intelligent: Join Dick Young & Get My Friday Email

A new stream of income is in the works this week. With BlackRock’s announcement yesterday to purchase U.K. data provider Preqin, it’s full steam ahead to bolster data capabilities as it expands into private markets. “BlackRock has been pushing to expand its private-market operations, an area that is faster growing and potentially more lucrative than its core business of selling low-cost passive investment products such as exchange-traded funds,” reports The WSJ.

In other words, this is a shift to less transparency, as investor money can be locked up in private investments for years. This is not for the benefit of Main Street investors—it’s for the “potentially more lucrative” business.

Action Line: Make sure you know if you’re the product or the investor. You can read more here.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.

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