It's time to upgrade your account

There are no fees to transition to a Vanguard Brokerage Account, but accounts are subject to the current Vanguard Brokerage Services commission and fee schedules.

Accounts on our legacy investment platform that transition to a Vanguard Brokerage Account before July 24, 2024, will avoid this year's annual Account Service Fee. Clients can qualify to have future account service fees waived on brokerage accounts by enrolling in e-delivery. See the Vanguard Brokerage Services commission and fee schedules for additional exclusions that may apply. Learn more about e-delivery

Yes. You'll retain access to all the same mutual funds you have access to today, and your current holdings will move to your Vanguard Brokerage Account.

Plus, you'll have new investment options available if you ever want to take advantage of them, including stocks, bonds, CDs, and non-Vanguard mutual funds and ETFs.

You'll also see a new money market fund in your account that will serve as your settlement fund (Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund.¹) This fund is used to pay for and receive proceeds from trades if you buy and sell securities in your account.

No. There are no tax implications when transitioning your investments to a Vanguard Brokerage Account. Instead of receiving multiple tax forms, you'll receive one consolidated tax form. 

For the tax year of your transition, you'll receive 2 separate tax forms—1 for the old platform and 1 for the new. Each year after that, you'll receive 1 consolidated tax form.

The cost basis of your fund investments, including your calculation method, will remain the same after the transition to your identically-registered Vanguard Brokerage Account. If you haven't sold any shares, and you've elected or been defaulted into the average cost method (AvgCost), you’ll be able to change  your cost basis election before the first sale if you wish.

Many account services, also known as account conveniences, function similarly within a Vanguard Brokerage Account. Clients who are currently enrolled in account services should pay particular attention to instructions in the online transition process and will need to complete a few extra steps to reestablish certain services after a successful account transition. A few of our more popular services are highlighted below, and you can access these and other conveniences through your  Profile & Account Settings (login required).

Automated investment plans: These automated plans are available on both platforms but will need to be reestablished after an account transition. Clients can reestablish automatic investment plans by accessing their Profile and Account Settings (see link above). Please note that the automatic exchange service isn’t available for brokerage accounts.

Automated withdrawal plans (including RMDs): If you had required minimum distributions (RMDs) or automatic withdrawals set up on any of your old accounts, those services will carry over to your Vanguard Brokerage Account. You don’t need to take any action. But keep in mind the RMD withdrawal date has changed to the 15th of the month of your scheduled withdrawal. The new platform doesn’t support distribution dates that take place on either the first 5 or the last 5 days of the month. However, you can change your distribution date to any day except the first 5 or last 5 days of the month.

Beneficiaries: Beneficiaries receive the assets in your accounts upon your passing. You may designate one or multiple beneficiaries for your accounts and they can be individuals, trusts, or organizations such as a charity. Confirm existing or designate new beneficiaries through your Profile & Account Settings.

Checkwriting: To write checks with a Vanguard Brokerage Account, you'll need to complete a new Checkwriting Service Form. Access the Banking section of your Profile & Account Settings to get started.

We’ll do our best to honor any outstanding checks written on a Vanguard mutual fund from your previous account that are presented for payment within 45 days after your Vanguard funds have been transferred into your brokerage account. For details, see the Vanguard Brokerage Account agreement (PDF).

Connect a bank:  To seamlessly move money to and from Vanguard, add a bank account to your new brokerage account which can be done through the Banking section of your Profile & Account Settings. You can then set up automatic investments which can help you reach your goals faster.

Grant access to your account: If you had previously authorized an agent with partial or full access, their information will be carried over to the new brokerage account in most cases. Authorized agents will receive an automated message to establish access to the new brokerage account. Once you remove the restrictions on your account, you can view and modify who has access to your accounts in the Security section of your Account Profile and Settings.

You can contact Vanguard at 877-662-7447 for additional support with account services.

Account security features: Now is a great time to ensure you’re taking full advantage of the security features you can adopt to help protect your Vanguard accounts. In addition to using a strong password unique to your Vanguard account, learn about additional account security options available. Consider downloading the Vanguard Mobile app,  which can be used to verify your identity when logging in to our website using push notifications and your device’s existing biometrics authentication.

For all your brokerage holdings, you'll have 2 options:


• Reinvest them in additional shares of the same holding.
• Distribute them in cash to your settlement fund.

Once your Vanguard mutual funds are in your brokerage account, you'll also have the option of receiving distributions by electronic transfer to your bank.

If dividends or capital gains are paid on the date your funds transfer into your Vanguard Brokerage Account, they'll be distributed by the method you've chosen, unless you originally elected to have them paid to another Vanguard mutual fund. In that case, they'll be reinvested in the funds that paid them. For more information on Vanguard Brokerage's Dividend Reinvestment Program, click here.

In the future, these dividends and capital gains on your Vanguard mutual funds will be paid to your settlement fund, unless you elect to have them reinvested or electronically transferred to your bank.

Vanguard has worked with clients to transition eligible accounts to our Vanguard Brokerage Account (VBA) platform for the past 10 years. Vanguard will retire our legacy investment platform for retail investor accounts by the end of 2025. The VBA platform was introduced to give clients more choices and flexibility and to better support our mission of helping our community of investors reach their financial goals. Currently, more than 85% of our accounts reside on this platform.​

Restrictions will prevent further purchases and exchanges. Any active account services like automatic investment plans or direct deposit will need to be reestablished, if available, and accounts will default to automatically reinvest dividends. Clients can still sell funds, request redemptions, and transfer funds outside of Vanguard.​

No, some account types and specific client scenarios are unable to transition at this time. Vanguard will communicate next steps to clients in these scenarios, or you can contact us at 877-662-7447 to learn more.​