Risk of having all investments with Vanguard

It's really up to the mods to act, or not.

 

It's not all nonsense. Here's what I've learned so far.

ETF asset ownership
As @Nodrog mentioned, nothing here to lose any sleep over. Australian ETF assets are kept safe through a combination of measures:

• All ETFs are issued using a unit trust structure;
• The assets of the unit trust are owned by the trustee, which can only use them for the benefit of unitholders as permitted by the ETF’s constitution and PDS;
• The ETF units give each unit holder an ownership share in the assets of the ETF as a whole;
• For further investor protection, the ETF assets are commonly held by a separate custodian, providing an extra layer of protection.

Who owns the Assets in my ETF? | BetaShares

The topic of Vanguard getting nuked was also discussed here.

ETF's in Australia
There are numerous ETF's in Australia and Vanguard is not the only index fund player.
The full list can be found here:
ETPs

Learning about ETF's
ASX offer quite a comprehensive course for free:
ETFs course

 

I agree. Put my previous post down to my twisted sense of humour.

You have been able to filer the source the information and have followed certain suggestions and have dismissed others. @monk has raised the question of misleading information being posted albeit not with a deliberate intention of it being so.

My opinion is @Chris P has it right.

 

Right about what?

Honestly, it's hard to follow what you folks are on about. Maybe it's some sort of in-joke? Is anyone brave enough avoid all this crap and just call out what they think the nonsense is in this thread?

Otherwise, does anyone have any other thoughts about the risks of having all of their funds with one ETF provider? I haven't been able to locate the previous discussion in this forum that have been referred to, but it seems like the consensus is that there isn't any real risks as each ETF has it's holdings in a separate trust and/or with a separate custodian.

 

Refer to the post above yours of yesterday evening.

 

In the case of say Vanguard, they are likely one of the largest providers of funds & etf's in the world for retail investors.
Many on this forum use only etf's like vas,vgs ( for international exposure) & various others, some also with a combination of these & lic's.
If you check the 'mr.money mustache forum' (this is huge in the U.S.) they mostly advocate using Vanguard etf's for U.S. indexing with a mix of a Vanguard bond etf. What is appropriate investing in the U.S. is not necessarily appropriate here in Oz.
There is also a mr.mmm forum for Australia.
Also if your check Aus. versions of F.I.R.E ( finanacially independent, retire early), you will likely find That Vanguard etf's are highly regarded. For index etf in Aus. other's like STW, IOZ & a200 are also well regarded.
Hope this is of some help.

 

He he, given that I only skim read posts nowadays I must admit that I have no idea what anyone is talking about in this thread. Then again senility is not uncommon at my age.

Personally, simple is best, less is more. Took me a long time to learn that. Once learned then forget about investing and enjoy life to the fullest.

 

The risks posted about funds earlier are irrelevant to broad market cap weighted ETFs that have withstood all tests thrown at them.

The ETF manager promotes the product. Each ETF is a
Unit trust with trustee a seperate legal entity from the manager. The trustee entrusts a seperate custodian to manage the assets / fund operation. The assets of the trust are not on the balance sheet of either the manager or the custodian. They are solely of the trust, owned by unit (share) holders.

Frankly the risk of AU long term economic prospects in light of a vastly different future vs 1945-2020 (post US asia-pacific hegemony) are much more on my mind than Vanguard running off with my money.

Ps. As an aside for all readers ; when looking at any fund managers, a simple malfeasance avoidance tip ; ensure the manager and custodian are seperate, unrelated parties dealing at arms length. 99% of scams will be avoided by following this rule.

 

Are you open to expanding on this part @The Falcon?

 

although this thread is about Vanguard ( i hold VAS and VHY ) it could easily be asked of any fund manager with a diverse range of products

in 2011 i selected VAS over the ASX 200 offerings BECAUSE it had a tiny extra interest in those extra 100 stocks

i selected VHY because they tried to cherry-pick the best div. payers in the ASX 200, I have since bought several rivals of VHY , you would be amazed of how they vary in holdings and payouts over time

obviously i found the low fees attractive , but the selling point ( back then ) was i could read through the pages and pages of PDS without falling asleep confused

since 2011 i have but other ETFs because they covered a sector/style i wanted to cover better

will i buy more Vanguard products in the future MAYBE , it will depend on entry price and if the product does what i need

 

Hey at least your member name discloses your investment strategy to other readers

 

a habit learned from another forum that was at the time full of rampers ,

it is in my best interest to keep more retail investors solvent ( no matter what strategy they use )

 

If that is truely your intent you would do well to re-read post #160 by @SatayKing in the Peter Thornhill 2021 thread. There are other posts by members who have clearly pointed out to you where you have made grave errors & mistakes of which you appear totally oblivious.

 

@twisted strategies , what I believe a few of the members are trying to say is just take some caution in your post's with regards to what is your opinion compared to what is fact.
I can see that you are sharing with the best of intentions so that we can all learn and open our minds to different ideas.

The danger is that if you post something that is fairly inaccurate but state it in a manner that comes across as fact it could mislead inexperienced readers. Example: The post you mentioned some serious issues with etf's or index funds with managers such as vanguard being at risk of collapse and putting ones investment at risk. As far as I understand this is not a real risk as the managers hold the investment on your behalf but don't actually own it. So the manager going under does not mean your investment is at risk. That's how I understand it works anyway.

In general though If I don't understand something 100% I tend not to make statements on it. If I do I make sure that I mention as I have above that I believe that's how it might work and allow others to correct me if they know better.

Just imagine a beginner, which I was when I came into this forum a few years back, not knowing much about ETF's or Vanguard reads your post. That would have scared the hell out of me and might have turned me off investing with Vanguard or ETF's. Sure I might have eventually did more homework and worked out how it really works, but it could have set me back a year or 2.

Anyway, that's just my thoughts on it.

 

You might be referring to this.

Although it's more "checking out to enjoy life" than "losing his ****".

 

No that wasn't him. The one I'm thinking of really, really lost his ****.

 

WHAT IF .. everybody tried to do the same thing at the same time ???

yes that scenario has played out several times even a memorable event in the 1920's

all i am saying is read , THINK and adapt to the way that best suits YOU

if you earn a millions dollars a year and your head hurts reading extra paperwork probably VAS or STW are perfect for you

there are you HUNDREDS of ETFs and LICs now for those that choose 'hands off ' investing

some managed and mutual funds for the cashed-up folks who have the right contacts if ETFs or LICs don't ring your bell

'simple ' used to be a term deposit in a bank , look how that worked out

 

Probably a stupid question but is there an easy way to look this up? What do I look for? Are the official labels simply "manager" and "custodian"?

 

All contained in PDS for each product.

 

Thanks. And "manager" and "custodian" are the official nomenclature to look for?