Code: Select all
Investment Type New Account Fee Current Account Fee
Vanguard Cash Account Nil 0.20% per annum
Vanguard managed funds Nil 0.20% per annum
Vanguard ETFs Nil 0.20% per annum
ASX direct shares 0.10% per annum 0.20% per annum
Investment Type New Brokerage Fee Current Brokerage Fee
Vanguard ETFs $9 per trade Nil
ASX direct shares $9 per trade $19.95 or 0.15% per trade
Vanguard managed funds Nil Nil
But it is good news that the 20 bp account fee is gone. That lops off a noticiable fee for investing directly through Vanguard AU.
I have a new investor that from their first job has $350 a week they want to invest. I was going to have them invest in VGS and VAS, but now for two trades the $18 brokerage is 5% of the investment. As saving up the 10% wanted to invest in VAS for one purchase every 6 months still results in 1% brokerage cost, I think now my advice will be to invest in the managed index funds and hope that increasing funds under management will bring down fees by the time their balance starts to become substantial enough to outweigh brokerage.
Edited: Just saw VanguardAU's answer to new investor's question. Clarified that every ETF purchase in personal investor accounts has a $500 minimum purchase amount, while the managed funds have a $500 initial purchase then any amount you like for additional purchases. With no brokerage, with the ongoing cost differences being zero or tiny, and with a $500 minimum on every ETF purchase, the managed funds seem easily to be the best way to go, especially for young investors looking to get started. Only a zero cost brokerage that let a minimum investment be the price of one share of an ETF would seem to beat that; and, last I looked, which admitedly was about 5 years ago, there weren't any of those in Australia.