Vanguard Personal Advisor vs an Independent Advisor: What the Price Difference Buys

Guides › Is an Advisor Worth It

Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: the price gap is real and so is the scope gap, and both are documented. From Vanguard Advisers, Inc.’s own Form CRS dated March 30, 2026, the tiered advisory fee is 0.30% on assets below $5 million, then 0.20% between $5 million and $10 million, 0.10% between $10 million and $25 million and 0.05% above that; Vanguard’s own worked example is “0.30% on the first $5 million = $15,000.” Vanguard Personal Advisor Select “is made available to Personal Investor Clients and prospects with a minimum of $500,000.” Against that, our benchmark of published adviser fee schedules puts the independent weighted median at 0.88% to 1.00% at $1 million ($8,750 to $10,000 a year). On $1 million the difference is roughly $3,000 to $7,000 a year. This page sticks to published pricing and published scope on both sides.

What Vanguard publishes about scope

Directly from the same Form CRS. The programs are described as robo discretionary, hybrid discretionary and hybrid non-discretionary, and “all options will require your accounts to be with Vanguard.” On investment universe: “Our lead investment recommendations will generally only include Vanguard exchange traded funds and mutual funds, and will generally not include purchases of individual securities or bonds, CDs, options, derivatives, annuities, third-party mutual funds, closed-end funds, partnerships, or other non-Vanguard securities.” On the fee’s boundaries: mutual funds carry “built-in fees known as ‘expense ratios’” that are separate, so “your combined fees for advice and investments will vary”; fees are “calculated on a rolling 90-day period based on your average daily balance”; and no advisory fee is charged on money market funds or other cash equivalents, except recommended allocations to cash equivalents in the discretionary offer. On standard of conduct: “When we act as your investment advisor, we are required by law to act in your best interest and put your interests ahead of ours.” The disclosed conflict, in their words: “Our lead advice will be to invest in Vanguard funds. You will pay the funds’ expense ratios.”

The comparison, as a scope table

Where your assets live. Vanguard requires the advised assets to be in accounts held with its affiliates. An independent adviser generally custodies wherever the adviser has a relationship and can usually accommodate outside holdings. What can be held. Vanguard’s published constraint is the one above — largely Vanguard funds and ETFs. An independent adviser has an open universe, which matters most if you hold a legacy low-basis position, a concentrated stock, an annuity or anything else you cannot simply sell. Coordination. A programme priced at 0.30% is priced for scale; coordination with your own attorney and accountant on estate structure, multi-year tax projection, charitable strategy or business succession is the kind of work an independent adviser charging near 1% ought to be delivering. Whether you are getting it is the question worth asking, because the gap only makes sense if the extra work exists — advisor versus wealth manager is the same test in different words.

How to decide

Vanguard-style pricing tends to fit a portfolio that is already in index funds, without legacy positions you cannot move, whose needs are allocation, rebalancing and periodic planning conversations. An independent adviser tends to fit a balance sheet with things in it — a business, concentrated stock, real estate, complex estate documents, several account types with different tax treatment — and where you want one person coordinating professionals. In both cases the price should be established in dollars: Form ADV Part 2A Item 5.A requires an adviser to “provide your fee schedule” and to “disclose whether the fees are negotiable.” Ask the independent adviser the all-in annual dollar cost including fund expenses, and compare it with 0.30% of the same balance plus index-fund expense ratios. If the answer is close, the independent adviser is competitive; if it is not, ask what the difference buys and expect a specific answer. Then: whether your current fee is high, how to negotiate it, robo versus human fees, and the underlying value question, is a financial advisor worth it. Published figures change — check each firm’s current Form CRS and Form ADV before deciding.