Vanguard institutional quality fixed income
Is your firm backed by institutional quality bond funds?1
Overview
Collaborative culture and top talent. Disciplined risk-taking. A firm structure and scale that enable us to keep costs low. Over $2.5 trillion* in fixed income assets under management. These are just a few things that Vanguard can offer your firm to help clients reach their goals. Our consistent outperformance has helped provide more income to clients and helped improve risk-adjusted returns.
This site will take you inside our process and philosophy, and familiarize you with our people. You’ll also dive into relevant thought leadership and get introduced to some of our funds.
We share the same ambition: the best long-term client outcomes. Look around and see why.
*As of April 30, 2025.
An introduction to our approach
Vanguard's Head of Fixed Income Sara Devereux provides a glimpse into why we're one of the world's largest active fixed income fund managers.
Process
Our active taxable strategy is a team-based, portfolio manager-led process built on specialization, collaboration, and accountability.
Our active municipal bond investment process:
People and performance*
For more than 40 years, Vanguard Fixed Income Group has distinguished itself with deep investment capabilities, disciplined security selection processes, and rigorous risk management techniques, resulting in consistent, long-term outperformance.
We are a highly credentialed and experienced team with more than 110 CFA Charterholders and nearly 90 graduate degree holders. Our portfolio managers and analysts have, on average, 21 and 19 years of experience, respectively.
Within the Fixed Income Group, Sara Devereux, Vanguard principal and global head of fixed income, leads teams with deep sector expertise and significant experience across credit research, trading, and portfolio management functions.
While we’re well-known as an indexing pioneer and powerhouse, our roots are in active management. Below reflects people and performance numbers for our active fixed income capabilities.
$237B
Active taxable bond AUM
$234B
Active municipal bond AUM
25+
Portfolio managers
35+
Traders
65+
Credit research analysts
150+
Team members
91%
Outperformed peer averages in 10 years**
* All data as of May 31, 2025
** For the one-year period, 47 of 59 active bond funds outperformed their peer group averages. For the three-year period, 42 of 57 active bond funds outperformed their peer group averages. For the five-year period, 33 of 54 active bond funds outperformed their peer group averages. For the ten-year period, 42 of 46 active bond funds outperformed their peer group averages. All data as of March 31, 2025. Results will vary for other time periods. Only funds with a minimum one-, three-, five-, or 10-year history were included in the comparison. Source: Lipper, a Thomson Reuters Company. Note that the competitive performance data shown represent past performance, which is not a guarantee of future results, and that all investments are subject to risks. View most recent fund performance: https://advisors.vanguard.com/investments/all
Philosophy
Our investment edge is defined by three pillars:
- A specialized yet collaborative team that enables the best investment opportunities to be identified and efficiently deployed across our portfolios.
- A focus on generating alpha across a variety of repeatable, scalable strategies rather than primarily relying on concentrated positions.
- A thoughtful approach to risk-taking, enabled by our cost advantage, in which our team is not forced to take undue risk just to deliver net alpha to our investors.
Discipline that delivers for your firm
Sara Devereux breaks down our fixed income approach—from disciplined risk management to staying true to what investors expect from their bond portfolios.
Consistent outperformance
Portfolio Manager Arvind Narayanan talks about the Vanguard Core Bond Fund and its active approach to investing in the fixed income market.
The plus in Core-Plus
Daniel Shaykevich touches on the Vanguard Core-Plus Bond Fund and how investors comfortable with a broader exposure and a more flexible management approach can benefit.
Fixed income insights
Vanguard Perspective | June 11, 2025
Introducing Vanguard Multi-Sector Income Bond ETF (VGMS)—the latest addition to our suite of fixed income ETFs. VGMS seeks to provide total return while generating a moderate-to-high level of current income.
Expert Perspective | May 29, 2025
Our head of U.S. municipals sees value right now in longer-dated, high-quality munis.
Expert Perspective | May 28, 2025
Puzzling together exposure in the growing realm of index municipal ETFs.
Expert Perspective | September 16, 2024
Global bonds provide active managers a greater opportunity set to generate higher yields.
Have questions about active fixed income? Contact us.
1 "Institutional quality" in this context is meant to convey a level of professional rigor and expertise combined with low costs.
Disclosures
Research our firm with FINRA's BrokerCheck.
For more information about Vanguard funds, visit vanguard.com to obtain a prospectus or, if available, a summary prospectus. Investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and other important information are contained in the prospectus; read and consider it carefully before investing.
Vanguard ETF Shares are not redeemable with the issuing Fund other than in very large aggregations worth millions of dollars. Instead, investors must buy and sell Vanguard ETF Shares in the secondary market and hold those shares in a brokerage account. In doing so, the investor may incur brokerage commissions and may pay more than net asset value when buying and receive less than net asset value when selling.
All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest.
Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against a loss.
Be aware that fluctuations in the financial markets and other factors may cause declines in the value of your account. There is no guarantee that any particular asset allocation or mix of funds will meet your investment objectives or provide you with a given level of income. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.
International investing is subject to additional risks, including the possibility that returns will be hurt by a decline in the value of foreign currencies or by unfavorable developments in a particular country or region.
Stocks and bonds of issuers based in emerging markets are subject to national and regional political and economic risks and to the risk of currency fluctuations. These risks are especially high in emerging markets.
Bond funds are subject to the risk that an issuer will fail to make payments on time, and that bond prices will decline because of rising interest rates or negative perceptions of an issuer's ability to make payments.
U.S. government backing of Treasury or agency securities applies only to the underlying securities and does not prevent share-price fluctuations. Unlike stocks and bonds, U.S. Treasury bills are guaranteed as to the timely payment of principal and interest.
High-yield bonds generally have medium- and lower-range credit-quality ratings and are therefore subject to a higher level of credit risk than bonds with higher credit-quality ratings.
Source of expense ratio comment in "New era for fixed income video": Vanguard and Morningstar, as of December 31, 2023.