Vanguard products in Spain

For residents of Spain.
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mtm2935
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Vanguard products in Spain

Post by mtm2935 »

I have a young relative in Spain that is interested in building a portfolio. As a Vanguard investor for more that 20 years, I recommended Vanguard. Much to my surprise Vanguard International seems to only operate in London, Paris and Amsterdam and they only serve their specific countries rather than the entire European Union. I have called Vanguard (USA) several times to find out if they are represented in Spain, but they seem to know anything about International operations. Is anyone in this forum aware if they offer Vanguard products in Spain? I really would like to get my relative on the right path.

Thanks for your help.
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LadyGeek
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Re: Vanguard products in Spain

Post by LadyGeek »

Welcome! Yes, Vanguard products are available for Spanish investors.

See the wiki: Investing from Spain

The bottom of the article contains links to a Spanish investing forum.
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bayview
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Re: Vanguard products in Spain

Post by bayview »

I never cease to be amazed at this forum and the wikis. :sharebeer

Time to make another donation!
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RME
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Re: Vanguard products in Spain

Post by RME »

You cannot directly buy Vanguard funds or ETFs in Spain, it is required to buy them from a bank or broker like Renta4, Selfbank, BNP, ING. This adds between 0.10% and 0.30% to the Vanguard fund cost.

I believe that Vanguard does not operate in Spain due to the low popularity of passive investing in this country as less than 1% of investments in Spain are in Index funds (for comparison, in the US this figure is near 30%).
cobalt2035
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Re: Vanguard products in Spain

Post by cobalt2035 »

In Spain, Funds and ETFs work differently. In terms of expenses:

Funds - buying and selling is free. You do it through a bank or broker like R4, Self bank, BNP, etc. Custodian fee is only payable in the case of certain funds that do not pay trailing commissions back to the broker/bank (e.g. Vanguard's indexed funds). However, you have an alternative: Amundi's indexed funds are equally cheap in terms of TER (management fees, etc.) but do not generally require you to pay custodian fees to your bank/broker (Renta 4, Self Bank, BNP Paribas PI). You can search funds at morningstar.es.

ETFs - you pay commission to your bank/broker to buy and sell. In some places you also have to pay a custodian fee, but not everywhere. For example, in Self Bank (they have a special account without custodian fees "sin custodia") you only pay to buy/sell ETFs, but not to hold ETFs. They seem to have a very wide range of ETFs available. Also, availability of indexed ETFs is far larger than that one of equivalent indexed funds in all cases (and their expenses are also lower). For information on ETFs availability in Spain check justetf.com and select Spain.

Note you won't be able to buy funds/ETFs that are not domiciled in the EU (recent PRIIP regulations).
Note you can move your money from one fund to another fund without paying taxes for any accumulated gains. Not so with ETFs.
Also, note that if you are tax resident in Spain and you hold >50k investments through foreign banks or brokers (including DeGiro, IB, etc.) you are expected to file a form on a yearly basis (M720) with hefty fines if you fail to do so.
fatdiver
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Re: Vanguard products in Spain

Post by fatdiver »

cobalt2035 wrote: Mon Feb 04, 2019 10:10 am In Spain, Funds and ETFs work differently. In terms of expenses:

Note you won't be able to buy funds/ETFs that are not domiciled in the EU (recent PRIIP regulations).
Note you can move your money from one fund to another fund without paying taxes for any accumulated gains. Not so with ETFs.
Also, note that if you are tax resident in Spain and you hold >50k investments through foreign banks or brokers (including DeGiro, IB, etc.) you are expected to file a form on a yearly basis (M720) with hefty fines if you fail to do so.
Thanks for this Spain-related info! I have a 'similar' challenge. I want to help my Spanish contractors set up personal pensions using (ideally) Vanguard LifeStrategy products - or alternatively low-cost index funds. I have no idea how personal pensions work in Spain - and of course, I'm trying to avoid paying advisors a fee and negating the low-cost investment benefits.

Has anyone already solved this or a similar challenge in Spain?
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LadyGeek
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Re: Vanguard products in Spain

Post by LadyGeek »

Welcome! Have you considered posting this question in our sister Spanish forum? Bogleheads® España - Inversión Pasiva, Indexada y Periódica (en español).

(If you don't speak Spanish, perhaps you can ask your contractors to ask their questions in that forum.)
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