Yes, Vanguard's advisors are fiduciaries when you pay for one of its advice services. Vanguard Digital Advisor, Personal Advisor, Personal Advisor Select, and Wealth Management are run by Vanguard Advisers, Inc., a Registered Investment Adviser. Vanguard's own Personal Advisor Select brochure (March 2026) states that Vanguard Advisers has a fiduciary duty to act in its clients' best interests. Two limits matter. First, the brochure says the sales staff who refer you into these services are not acting as fiduciaries. Second, a self-directed Vanguard account, where you pick your own funds, is a brokerage account with no advice at all. So whether you get fiduciary advice depends on which Vanguard service you are in, not on the Vanguard name.
Vanguard's advice services
Vanguard lists four tiers on its advice page:
- Digital Advisor. Automated, $1,001 minimum, about 0.15% a year.
- Personal Advisor. Automated portfolio plus access to human advisors, $50,000 minimum, about 0.30% a year.
- Personal Advisor Select. A dedicated advisor, $500,000 minimum. Its brochure lists a tiered fee of 0.30% on the first $5 million, dropping to 0.20%, 0.10%, and 0.05% on larger balances.
- Wealth Management. $5 million minimum, a fee of no more than 0.30% a year.
The Personal Advisor Select brochure also lists a $75 quarterly advice platform fee, in effect since January 2024. Ask whether it applies to your account.
The conflicts to know about
Vanguard is a low-cost adviser, but not a conflict-free one:
- Vanguard funds first. Vanguard's Form CRS says its lead advice will be to invest in Vanguard funds.
- A 2025 SEC penalty. In August 2025, the SEC settled with Vanguard Advisers for $19.5 million. The SEC found that advisor bonus metrics rewarded enrolling and keeping clients in what is now Personal Advisor Select, and that Vanguard had not properly disclosed that conflict.
- A separate fund settlement. In January 2025, The Vanguard Group, a different Vanguard company, agreed to pay more than $106 million to resolve SEC charges over its target date retirement funds. That case was about fund disclosures, not advisor duty, but it is part of the firm's record.
How Vanguard's price compares
Vanguard's advice fees, roughly 0.15% to 0.30% a year, are well below the 0.50% to 1.25% range typical at independent fee-only advisors (see how much a fiduciary advisor costs). The trade-off is depth and independence. An independent fee-only adviser recommends funds from any company and usually offers more customized planning for complex situations like equity compensation, a business, or estate work.
How to confirm which side you are on
Read the Form CRS Vanguard gave you, and check whether you pay an advisory fee for one of the four services above. If you only buy funds yourself in a Vanguard IRA or brokerage account, nobody at Vanguard is acting as your fiduciary. You can look up Vanguard Advisers' full disclosures on the SEC's adviser search.
