Vanguard Group is now officially a house divided against itself, a deliberate move to withstand the two potentially great threats to its future prosperity.
The Malvern, Pa. company’s asset management is now split into Vanguard Capital Management, LLC (VCM) and Vanguard Portfolio Management, LLC (VPM), unequal in size and differing in mission, but sometimes competing and situated apart from each other on Vanguard’s campus. See: In a massive overhaul, Vanguard will split its $10.4 trillion in funds between two ‘distinct’ management teams with separate trading desks potentially trading against each other, analyst says
Jeff DeMaso: Move aimed at elephant in the Vanguard room.
As a behemoth, Vanguard’s unwieldy size creates at least two concerning existential issues – namely that it can grow bloated and stagnant, and that its rising proxy powers can attract unwanted attention from regulators.
VCM will function more as a “classic” Vanguard, managing lower-fee funds, target-date funds and big index funds.
VCM will defend Vanguard’s traditional cost leadership in foundational products …cost reduction, tracking efficiency, and operational excellence, and develop expertise in scale management.
VPM will manage more complex, active, factor and quantitative funds
VPM enables growth in higher-margin specialized strategies … [including] factor ETF innovation, quantitative strategy advancement, and specialized analytics … [emphasizing]performance generation, innovation, and analytical value-add.
Fund split list here: