investment professionals
Vanguard's active fixed income advantage
Helping your firm succeed over the long run.
Overview
Collaborative culture and top talent. Disciplined risk-taking. A firm structure and scale that enable us to keep costs low. Over $2 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 helps provide more income to clients, improve risk-adjusted returns, and preserve capital.
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 December 31, 2023
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
Vanguard’s active taxable fixed income funds follow a portfolio manager-driven process that uses both top-down inputs from the Senior Investment Committee (SIC) and Investment Strategy Group and bottom-up inputs from each specialized sector team. The Taxable Strategy Committee combines these inputs into a broad taxable investment strategy.
Portfolio managers (PMs) are responsible for using these inputs to establish a portfolio construction strategy for each fund or ETF, while sector analysts and traders own the execution, with PM oversight. Risk management and optimization are present throughout the process, and the SIC provides governance and oversight.
Our active taxable strategy is a team-based, portfolio manager-led process built on specialization, collaboration, and accountability.
People and performance1
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 of nearly 200 professionals, 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.
$219B
Taxable bond AUM 19 funds/ETF
$208B
Municipal bond AUM
5 national funds/7 state-specific funds
25+
Portfolio managers
35+
Traders
60+
Credit research analysts
130+
Active team members
95%
Outperformed peer averages in 10 years2
85%
Outperformed peer averages in 5 years2
1 All data as of December 31, 2023.
2 For the one-year period, 34 of 57 Vanguard active bond funds outperformed their peer group averages. For the three-year period, 36 of 54 Vanguard active bond funds outperformed their peer-group averages. For the five-year period, 42 of 54 Vanguard active bond funds outperformed their peer-group averages. For the ten-year period, 42 of 44 Vanguard active bond funds outperformed their peer-group averages. All data as of March 21, 2024. Results will vary for other time periods. Only funds with a minimum one-, three-, five-, or ten-year history, respectively, 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. View most recent fund performance
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.
Bonds are back
Sara Devereux has a conversation with Portfolio Managers Daniel Shaykevich and James D'Arcy about why the investment world is trending more bond-friendly.
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.
Have questions about active fixed income? Contact us.
Disclosures
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.
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