Vanguard Personal Advisor Review
Hybrid human + robo advice at ~0.30%/yr, the price every matched advisor has to justify beating.
About Vanguard Personal Advisor
Hybrid human + robo advice at ~0.30%/yr, the price every matched advisor has to justify beating. Vanguard Personal Advisor is offered by Vanguard Advisers, Inc. and currently holds an average rating of 4.1 out of 5 across 364 user reviews. It falls into the Financial Advisors category and tends to be the strongest fit for index-fund investors who want fiduciary advice at benchmark cost.
Editorial grade: B (composite score 78/100).
Highlights
- Advertised ~0.30%/yr all-in advice fee vs ~1% for a typical independent advisor
- $50,000 minimum; dedicated CFP at the $500K Select tier
- All advisors are fiduciaries; portfolios built from Vanguard index funds
What we like
- Roughly a third the cost of a typical matched human advisor
- Fiduciary advice backed by one of the largest asset managers ($120B+ discretionary in the program)
- Tiers scale down to 0.15% (Digital Advisor, $100 minimum) and up to dedicated wealth management
Where it falls short
- Vanguard-only portfolios; less bespoke planning than an independent RIA
- Pooled (not dedicated) advisors below $500K
- January 2025 SEC settlement ($106M) over target-date fund disclosures; service-quality complaints are common on review sites
Fees, minimums, and rates
Monthly fee: ~0.30%/yr (gross 0.35-0.40% less fund revenue credits). Minimum to open: $50,000. Rates and promotional offers change often, so we re-verify every listed number on a rolling schedule and stamp the review with the date of the most recent check.
How we reviewed it
Our brokerage and robo-advisor reviews weight costs and fees (25%), platform and tools (20%), asset selection (15%), account types (10%), education and research (10%), customer support (10%), and trust and safety (10%). We place real trades, fund retirement accounts, and test research features before publishing a score. For this review of Vanguard Personal Advisor, our editors funded an account, walked through the full onboarding flow, and compared the experience to the other products in the Financial Advisors shortlist. Scores are not influenced by affiliate relationships — partners cannot pay for better rankings, and our rubric is the same for every brand.
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Read our full editorial methodology and advertiser disclosure for more on how we fund our testing and why that matters for the reviews you read here.