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Wednesday, August 26, 2026

Vanguard Buys Altruist For $4 Billion -- August 26, 2026

Locator: 51551VANGUARD.

Vanguard now competes with Schwab directly.

The pie is huge: see "great wealth transfer" below. 

My hunch: brick-and-mortar play becomes even more important.

  • "Great Wealth Transfer," an estimated $124 trillion is projected to change hands globally by 2048; 
  • the vast amount of this transfer will pass through women
  • these new wealthy will likely spend an average of $50,000 / year to pay for wealth management
    • current rule of thumb: annual fees of 1% of assets under management 
    • will we go from percent to fixed fee? 
  • Schwab and Vanguard will need to bring that average down significantly; AI will make it possible

Neither Vanguard nor Altruist have brick-and-mortar sites for retail customers. 

Numbers:

  • Altruist: bought for $4 billion
  • Schwab's market cap: almost $200 billion 

Schwab does (have local brick-and-mortar sites for retail customers).