Vanguard doubles down on retail super

Vanguard has indicated the change after managing investments on behalf of Australian funds for more than 20 years, stating it has increasingly focused on individual investors and the financial intermediaries serving them.

The company has recently established a trustee entity for Vanguard Super, its challenge for a slice of the $2.9 trillion sector.

At the same time, it is no longer offering segregated mandate accounts (SMA) or customised solutions as an investment vehicle to institutional investors in Australia and New Zealand.

Vanguard, however, will continue to offer pooled fund solutions to institutional clients, while it works to transition out of its SMA mandates.

Speaking on Vanguard delving into super, a spokesperson for the group said no launch date has been set yet.

“This is an ambitious plan and it requires us to focus our long-term efforts on opportunities that enable us to better serve direct investors and their advisers,” a spokesperson for Vanguard said.

“We continue to build out a superannuation offer in the Australian market and hope to bring our distinctive approach to investing and saving to more Australians.

“We’ve built significant expertise in this space and we think our focus on high-quality retirement strategies coupled with our disciplined, low-cost approach to investing could potentially help more Australians reach their retirement goals.”

In April, Vanguard launched its Personal Investor offering, a website providing direct access to its range of managed funds, Australian ETFs, Australian shares and an integrated cash account.

Users gained access to Vanguard’s Australian-listed ETFs brokerage-free and the platform was also set to add access to SMSF accounts.