Shaping the next era of advice at Future Proof Festival

Vanguard made waves at this year’s Future Proof Festival in Huntington Beach, California, which brought together thousands of financial advisors, industry leaders, and innovators. From a 1975-inspired booth to thought-provoking sessions, here’s how we brought the energy to the industry’s largest wealth management event.

Mainstage spotlight: Joe Davis and Barry Ritholtz—Masters in Business live

The first day kicked off with a can’t-miss mainstage session: Joe Davis, Vanguard’s global chief economist, joined Barry Ritholtz for a live taping of Bloomberg’s Masters in Business podcast.

Their conversation mapped out the megatrends shaping markets today. Joe shared his playbook for approaching the era of artificial intelligence, shifting demographics, and fiscal challenges—arming advisors with sharper insights on growth, inflation, and portfolio positioning. Attendees also walked away with a preview of Joe’s new book, Coming Into View: How AI and Other Megatrends Will Shape Your Investments.

Watch the full conversation here:

Real-world solutions from subject matter experts

Throughout the festival, our subject matter experts hosted small group Breakthru sessions around the industry’s hot topics:

• Personalized indexing: Ben Hammer, Michael Morrissey, and Vernita Exum led hands-on demos of Vanguard Personalized Indexing (VPI), showing how direct indexing can drive after-tax outcomes for clients.
• Model portfolios: Pat Moore and Frank Chism guided attendees through practical strategies and real-world use cases for model portfolios.
• Fixed income: Brad Collins and Jonathan Wendeborn shared fresh insights on cash management and short-duration fixed income trends, helping advisors optimize liquidity and returns.
• Financial planning: Colleen Jaconetti’s session blended practice growth strategies with Vanguard’s Advisor’s Alpha® framework, inspiring advisors to elevate their practice and deepen client trust.

Booth experience: 1975 spirit, future-forward vision

To celebrate our 50th anniversary, our booth was a retro hotspot, channeling the spirit of 1975. Attendees were greeted by vibrant colors, vinyl records, and a disco ball—plus exclusive swag like vintage lunchboxes, cooler cans, and throwback tees. But the booth was more than a photo op; it was a hub for 1:1 meetings, tech demos, and social events, complete with a vinyl-spinning DJ.

For more highlights from the event, check out the video below.

Important information

“Institutional quality” in this context is meant to convey a level of professional rigor and expertise combined with low costs. 

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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.

Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management, LLC ("Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management"), formerly Just Invest, LLC, an SEC-registered investment advisor, is an independently operated wholly-owned subsidiary of The Vanguard Group, Inc. ("Vanguard"). Vanguard Personalized Indexing is an asset management technology that has been developed and is offered solely by Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management.

For more information on Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management and Vanguard Personalized Indexing, and to access Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management's Form CRS and Form ADV Part 2A disclosure brochure, please visit the Vanguard Personalized Indexing topic page.

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Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against a loss.

Investments in bonds are subject to interest rate, credit, and inflation risk.