Focus on the present while Digital Advisor focuses on the future
$3,000
in minimum assets to enroll1
Unique goals deserve personalized strategies
As an advice client, your financial journey drives the diversified blend of ETFs (exchange-traded funds) and mutual funds included in your portfolio—regardless of which investment option you choose.
Already have investments with us?
You may be able to keep some of your current investments when you enroll to lessen tax impacts.
Your personalized all-index investment option will center on low-cost Vanguard ETFs®, offering broad diversification covering nearly all aspects of U.S. and international stock and bond markets.
Who benefits from this investment option?
Investors looking for index funds that track broad U.S. and international stock and bond markets.
If you have higher taxable income, we'll use tax-exempt investments for your U.S. bond allocation in your taxable accounts.***
What are the advisory fees?
$15
You’ll pay approximately $15 per $10,000 annually.2
What funds are used in this investment option?
Interested in this investment option?
Your personalized active/index investment option of Vanguard ETFs® and mutual funds will combine the chance for higher returns from actively managed funds with the broad diversification of index funds. It may also include up to 3 Advice Select funds available exclusively to our advice services clients.
Who benefits from this investment option?
Investors who are patient when active funds have periods of underperformance and are willing to pay a higher advisory fee with no guarantee of long-term outperformance.
If you have higher taxable income, we'll use tax-exempt investments for your U.S. bond allocation in your taxable accounts.***
What are the advisory fees?
$20
You’ll pay approximately $20 per $10,000 annually.2
What funds are used in this investment option?
Interested in this investment option?
Your environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment option will help to align with your preferences by substituting Vanguard ETFs® that apply prescreened ESG criteria defined by third-party index providers. It will also contain certain non-ESG bond ETFs to provide additional diversification.*
Why might you choose this investment option?
Investors who are seeking an investment option that helps to align their personal preferences. Though not as broadly diversified as total market funds, the ESG funds we use—when combined—include thousands of stocks and bonds to help balance investment risk and reward.
If you have higher taxable income, we'll use tax-exempt investments for your U.S. bond allocation in your taxable accounts.***
What are the advisory fees?
$15
You’ll pay approximately $15 per $10,000 annually.2
What funds are used in this investment option?
Interested in this investment option?
Learn more about Vanguard Digital Advisor
- Introducing Digital Advisor
- See Digital Advisor in use
- How to enroll in Digital Advisor
Duration: 1:44
Duration: 0:46
Duration: 1:44
Duration: 0:46
- Introducing Digital Advisor
- See Digital Advisor in use
- How to enroll in Digital Advisor
Frequently asked questions
Enrollments in Vanguard Digital Advisor require at least $3,000 in each Vanguard Brokerage Account.1 For each taxable, traditional, Roth, or rollover IRA you wish to enroll, the entire balance must be in certain investment types (based on eligibility screening by Digital Advisor at the time of enrollment, see next question for more details) and/or the brokerage account's settlement fund.
For eligible 401(k) retirement accounts, the minimum enrollment balance is $5.6
Your eligibility screening will determine whether you have the types of investments that Digital Advisor can manage. In some cases, you'll need to sell all or a portion of certain investments as part of the enrollment process so we can manage them for you.
For each brokerage account you wish to enroll, the entire balance must be in certain investment types (based on eligibility screening by Digital Advisor at the time of enrollment) and/or the brokerage account's settlement fund. If your brokerage accounts include Vanguard index funds or Vanguard ETFs®, you may be able to keep those investments in your Digital Advisor account. However, we may recommend you sell down those or other investments before enrolling. Since there may be costs and tax consequences associated with selling your existing investments, we use a breakeven cost analysis to weigh the costs of transitioning the investments you hold before enrolling in Digital Advisor (see our Digital Advisor brochure for more details). We estimate the capital gains tax impacts compared to the expense ratio benefits from selling investments that aren't our lead recommendation (the investment we would typically recommend for you), but that still align with your recommended asset allocation. So depending on the outcome of the breakeven analysis, we may recommend that you continue to hold certain investments subject to our portfolio construction guidelines—or we may determine it's in your interest to sell down a particular investment during enrollment.
The following types of investments cannot be in your brokerage account before enrolling in Digital Advisor: certain non-Vanguard mutual funds, individual bonds, securities traded on international exchanges, preferred stocks, penny stocks, illiquid stocks, and options.
In this case, you'd need to sell the ineligible investments and invest the proceeds in your brokerage account settlement fund before enrolling. If you're in this situation, you might also consider opening a new Vanguard Brokerage Account to enroll in Digital Advisor.
Important: Digital Advisor doesn't assess the suitability of the sale of existing holdings given a particular client's financial circumstances, recommend selling a client's existing holdings to enroll, or provide tax advice. The sale of existing holdings could cause you to incur capital gains—costs associated with incurring capital gains vary based on the time you hold a position and your individual tax situation. The cost of incurring capital gains can be substantial. We recommend you consult a qualified tax advisor to discuss your individual situation and any potential tax consequences.
For eligible 401(k) retirement accounts, Digital Advisor doesn't require a money market or stable value fund minimum balance.6
To enroll, you'll need to meet the following requirements:
- You have a retail Vanguard Brokerage Account with a balance of at least $3,000. (If you're new to Vanguard, opening an account is simple.)
- You're a United States resident, or you have an APO/FPO/DPO mailing address.
- You’re at least 18 years of age. (At least age 19 in Alabama or Nebraska and at least age 21 in Mississippi.)
- You're not—or do not live in the same household as—a board member, executive, or someone who's able to influence policy in a publicly traded corporation.
If you have a Vanguard-administered 401(k) retirement account, you may also be eligible to enroll.6 Restrictions may apply to certain organization members.
Vanguard Brokerage Option (VBO®) accounts offered by plan sponsors aren't eligible for management by Digital Advisor. Special notice to non-U.S. investors 
Digital Advisor can manage eligible 401(k) retirement accounts6 and the following types of retail Vanguard Brokerage Accounts:
- Individual or joint tenants with rights of survivorship (JTWROS) taxable accounts.
- Traditional IRAs.
- Roth IRAs.
- Rollover IRAs.
However, we recommend that you connect other Vanguard and non-Vanguard accounts as you plan your goals so we can incorporate them into your goal growth projections, and help you forecast your likelihood of meeting your long-term goals.
Your first eligible Vanguard Brokerage Account (IRA or taxable) or employer-sponsored retirement plan account (401(k)) qualify for the advisory fee waiver. (If your employer-sponsored plan account qualifies for the advisory fee waiver, you’ll see that during the enrollment process.)
If your account has been enrolled in Digital Advisor for more than 90 days, any new accounts you subsequently enroll are not eligible for the advisory fee waiver.
Employer-sponsored retirement accounts enrolled by the plan fiduciary are not eligible for the advisory fee waiver.
For more information on Digital Advisor’s fee structure, see the VAI Form CRS and the Vanguard Digital Advisor Brochure.
Digital Advisor offers a portfolio of actively managed mutual funds and index ETFs for Vanguard Brokerage Accounts. During the onboarding process, you'll take an assessment to determine whether you have the risk temperament for active strategies and can ride out periods of active underperformance. Incorporating active funds allows for greater portfolio personalization and the potential for better investment outcomes for those clients willing to pay a higher cost for that potential.
Digital Advisor takes a holistic approach to funding your goals by "pooling" your assets across all your accounts to fund your goals. This way, your accounts will work together to get you closer to success. Plus, Digital Advisor will shift resources where needed and adjust automatically to ensure your asset mix evolves for managed goals.5
As your managed goals get closer, we'll make sure amounts you need to withdraw are invested more conservatively to reduce market risk. Contributions you make will be optimized to support all your goals, and any cash you withdraw will affect all your goals. With a dynamic portfolio, a single, evolving asset mix, and automatic adjustments, your goals will be aligned to help you stay on track together and take advantage of tax efficiencies.
Note: Because our approach is designed to optimize your investment returns, and minimize risk in the short term, Digital Advisor can only support goals that are at least 18 months away. To remain enrolled in Digital Advisor, you’ll need to have at least $3,000 in your account after making a withdrawal. (If you have less than $3,000, your account is no longer eligible to be managed by Digital Advisor and you would need to unenroll. There are no cancellation fees or penalties for having an account that no longer qualifies for the service.)
Robo-advisor is a commonly used term for an all-digital financial planning and investment management service. Robo-advisors often use algorithms (i.e., processes or sets of rules followed in computer calculations) to provide automated investment services without human interaction. A robo-advisor typically gathers information about your investing goals, uses an algorithm to determine an appropriate asset allocation, and builds an investment portfolio tailored to your situation. Most robo-advisors automatically rebalance your portfolio, so you don't have to.
We're glad you asked! Our money-management service:
- Features state-of-the-art financial planning and portfolio construction capabilities, powered by Vanguard's practical and time-tested investment strategies.
- Offers access to high-quality investments consisting of Vanguard ETFs®, plus robust, easy-to-use financial planning tools.
- Connects to non-Vanguard accounts so it can present you with a holistic picture of your financial life and more accurate projections.
- Focuses on helping you build retirement savings and includes a debt payoff tool.
- Continues to add new features to help with your financial planning needs.
Digital Advisor can manage your personal investment accounts and certain employer-sponsored 401(k) retirement accounts for which Vanguard is the recordkeeper.6
Vanguard is one of the most trusted names in financial services built on the radical idea of putting investors' best interests first.
You'll incur expenses to invest in the underlying funds, collective investment trusts, and ETFs in your portfolio (i.e., expense ratios). If you're invested in ETFs, collective investment trusts, or mutual funds today, you're already paying these expenses. We credit the revenue received from your investment portfolio toward the gross advisory fee and deduct only the additional net advisory fee from your managed accounts.
In general, if you incur a fee that results in revenue for Vanguard or a Vanguard affiliate, it will be included in this credit amount. Certain regulatory required trading fees aren't considered revenue and are still incurred for trades within Vanguard Brokerage Accounts, but not credited. For more information about Digital Advisor's fee structure, refer to Form CRS Conversation Starter questions and the Vanguard Digital Advisor Brochure.
Market volatility is when the price of stocks swings up or down because there's too much trading in one direction (substantially more buys than sells or vice versa). Many investors might see the stock dip and want to sell or wait to "time the market." The market, however, is unpredictable. But that doesn't mean your money is completely up to the whims of the headlines. Even with daily ups and downs, the overall market has historically grown over the decades.
With Digital Advisor, you can benefit from the market's long-term growth with a time-tested strategy: owning a balanced portfolio. The foundations of a balanced portfolio are asset allocation and diversification. Digital Advisor will maintain your investments so you'll always have a portfolio that aligns to your retirement goal. If you choose to add other goals, it can adjust your holdings to keep you on target. We'll rebalance your portfolio if we detect it's drifted more than 5% from our recommended allocation.
What can you do during market swings? You can look at your accounts and update your information if anything has changed. You can also check out Vanguard's resources on market swings. Rest assured that your goal projections take all kinds of market volatility into account—while short-term "blips" might feel jarring, we have your long-term focus in mind.
Awarded January 2024, based on data as of October 2023.7
Awarded June 2023, based on data as of December 2022.8
Compensation provided for use of the rating in marketing materials.
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All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest. Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against a loss.
Visit vanguard.com to obtain a Vanguard mutual fund or Vanguard ETF prospectus or, if available, a summary prospectus, which contains investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and other information; read and consider it carefully before investing.
1Enrollments in Vanguard Digital Advisor require at least $3,000 in each Vanguard Brokerage Account. For each taxable account or traditional, Roth, or rollover IRA you wish to enroll, the entire balance must be in certain investment types (based on eligibility screening by Digital Advisor at the time of enrollment) and/or the brokerage account's settlement fund.
2Vanguard Digital Advisor is an all-digital service. Digital Advisor charges brokerage accounts an annual gross advisory fee in the amount of 0.20% for an index portfolio option or 0.25% for an active portfolio option. That gross advisory fee is reduced by a credit of the actual revenue The Vanguard Group, Inc. ("VGI"), or its affiliates retain from investments in each enrolled account, resulting in a net advisory fee. The net advisory fee is the actual fee collected from your account(s) and will vary based on your unique asset allocation, portfolio option, account type, and specific holdings in each enrolled account. Note that this fee doesn't include investment expense ratios charged by a fund, such as fees paid to the funds' third-party managers which are not credited. While we generally recommend using low-cost Vanguard funds to build your portfolio, actively managed funds will have higher expense ratios than index funds. For more information on the services, find VAI's Form CRS and each program's advisory brochure here for an overview.
*To maintain diversification, this portfolio option will also include non-ESG investments to achieve your target asset allocation for international and domestic bonds.
The ESG investment option gives Digital Advisor clients the ability to substitute certain existing holdings with Vanguard ETFs that invest according to an index that has been pre-screened based on ESG factors determined by a third-party index provider. There is no guarantee that the ESG investment option will perform better than the other investment options.
ESG funds are subject to ESG investment risk, which is the chance that the stocks or bonds screened by the index provider for ESG criteria generally will underperform the market as a whole or, in the aggregate, will trail returns of other funds screened for ESG criteria. The index provider's assessment of a company, based on the company's level of involvement in a particular industry or the index provider's own ESG criteria, may differ from that of other funds or of the advisor's or an investor's assessment of such company. As a result, the companies deemed eligible by the index provider may not reflect the beliefs and values of any particular investor and may not exhibit positive or favorable ESG characteristics. The evaluation of companies for ESG screening or integration is dependent on the timely and accurate reporting of ESG data by the companies. Successful application of the screens will depend on the index provider's proper identification and analysis of ESG data.
**Vanguard can help determine if tax-loss harvesting is appropriate for your specific situation. Tax-loss harvesting is included in your Digital Advisor advisory fee. Tax-loss harvesting involves certain risks, including, among others, the risk that the new investment could have higher costs than the original investment and could introduce portfolio tracking error into your accounts. There may also be unintended tax implications. We recommend that you carefully review the terms of the consent and consult a tax advisor before taking action.
***Although the income from a municipal bond fund is exempt from federal tax, you may owe taxes on any capital gains realized through the fund's trading or through your own redemption of shares. For some investors, a portion of the fund's income may be subject to state and local taxes, as well as to the federal Alternative Minimum Tax.
3The introductory waiver period for Vanguard Digital Advisor's net advisory fee begins when the first account's enrollment is complete and ends after the close of the first billing period (generally 90 days), which is specific to each client. If you enroll additional accounts at a later date, you can still take advantage of any remaining fee-waiver period. However, each additional account you enroll won't trigger a unique fee-waiver period but will instead be commingled with your first enrolled account. If you unenroll before your fee-waiver period ends, you won't owe an advisory fee. But if you choose to reenroll in Vanguard Digital Advisor during or after your fee-waiver period, you won't be eligible for a second fee waiver. If you previously enrolled accounts in other VAI proprietary retail offers you will not be eligible for the introductory fee waiver. This fee-waiver offer may be modified or discontinued anytime at the sole discretion of Vanguard Advisers, Inc. All costs associated with fund expense ratios still apply at all times.
4Based on enrolling accounts holding assets in the settlement fund that are invested in a portfolio of Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Total International Stock ETF, Total Bond Market ETF, and Total International Bond ETF.
5Once you enroll a taxable brokerage account in Vanguard Digital Advisor, you'll have the option to add nonretirement goals to your Digital Advisor profile. This can help you balance retirement with your other major financial goals. At this time, Digital Advisor only supports nonretirement goals you'd like to achieve before you reach age 59½.
6Vanguard-administered 401(k) retirement accounts are only eligible for management by Digital Advisor if the plan sponsor has elected to offer Digital Advisor to the plan's participants and the participants meet the eligibility criteria.
You should consult your plan fee disclosure notice for the applicable annual gross advisory fees that apply to your 401(k) account.
7Vanguard Digital Advisor received the top rating for "Best Robo-Advisor for Low-Cost Investing" for 2024 among 14 other robo-advisors selected by NerdWallet. NerdWallet evaluated each provider across the following weighted criteria as of October 1, 2023, to determine the winner for low costs: management fees (50%), expense ratios on investments (40%), and account fees (10%). NerdWallet also selected Vanguard Digital Advisor for the 2021 award based on November 16, 2020, data; the 2022 award based on October 1, 2021, data; and the 2023 award based on October 1, 2022, data. Additional details about NerdWallet's methodology are available on their website. Current fees may vary for Digital Advisor and the other robo-advisors considered. Although Vanguard compensates NerdWallet for marketing services, NerdWallet's opinions and evaluations are independent and unrelated to the selection of Digital Advisor for this award. ©2017-2024 and TM, NerdWallet, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
8Vanguard received the first overall ranking in Morningstar's "Robo-Advisor Landscape Report" for 2023 among 17 other robo-advisors selected by Morningstar. Morningstar evaluated each provider across the following weighted criteria as of December 2022, to determine their rankings: total price (30%); the process used to select investments, construct portfolios, and match portfolios with investors (30%); the parent organization behind the digital platform (20%); and breadth of services (20%). Vanguard also received the same ranking in 2022 in Morningstar’s first annual "Robo-Advisor Landscape Report" based on December 2021, data. Additional details about Morningstar's methodology are available on its website. Current fees may vary for Vanguard's advisory services and the other robo-advisors considered. Although Vanguard compensates Morningstar for marketing services, Morningstar's opinions and evaluations are independent and unrelated to the selection of Vanguard for this ranking. Following the independent announcement of this ranking, Vanguard purchased a license from Morningstar for the right to include this rating in Vanguard marketing. Source: “2023 Robo-Advisor Landscape” by Amy C. Arnott, et al. ©2023 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved.
Vanguard Personal Advisor Services and Vanguard Digital Advisor's services are provided by Vanguard Advisers, Inc. ("VAI"), a federally registered investment advisor. VAI is a subsidiary of VGI and an affiliate of Vanguard Marketing Corporation ("VMC"). Neither VGI, VAI, nor its affiliates guarantee profits or protection from losses.
Vanguard is owned by its funds, which are owned by Vanguard’s fund shareholder clients. Our retail direct investment advisory strategies, in turn, are built on core investments in the Vanguard funds.
If you decide to manage your investments on your own, you can buy and sell Vanguard ETF Shares through Vanguard Brokerage Services® or another broker (which may charge commissions). See the Vanguard Brokerage Services commission and fee schedules for full details. Vanguard ETF Shares are not redeemable directly with the issuing fund other than in very large aggregations worth millions of dollars. ETFs are subject to market volatility. When buying or selling an ETF, you will pay or receive the current market price, which may be more or less than net asset value.