Why Don’t Vanguard’s Target Retirement and LifeStrategy Funds Own Admiral Shares?

One question I receive periodically is why the Target Retirement and LifeStrategy funds at Vanguard hold “Investor” shares of the underlying funds, rather than the less expensive “Admiral” shares. Emily Farrell, Head of U.S. Business PR at Vanguard, was kind enough to provide the answer.

—–

Piper: Why don’t the LifeStrategy and Target Retirement funds use Admiral shares as the underlying holdings?

Or, if there’s a concern about that being a way to “cheat” to get access to Admiral shares without meeting the requirements, why not have an Admiral share class for the LifeStrategy and Target Retirement Funds, with a higher minimum investment (i.e., a high enough figure such that a person investing that amount via an identical DIY allocation would qualify for Admiral shares of all or most of the underlying funds)?

Farrell: Vanguard is unable to offer multiple share classes on funds of funds due to the structure in which we operate, and the agreement we have with the SEC regarding multiple share classes. Our funds of funds have no direct costs — the costs are derived only from the ERs of the underlying funds. According to that agreement, we must be able to offer a differentiated cost advantage between share classes. (Therefore, because there is no direct cost associated with a fund of fund — it’s not possible for us to offer such an advantage).

As you may recall, we launched a suite of Institutional TRFs in 2015. Note, however, those are not share classes — they are an entirely new set of mutual funds.

Piper: Given that Vanguard can only have one share class of a fund-of-funds, how does Vanguard decide which share classes to hold within such funds? The “normal” (non-institutional) versions of the funds-of-funds each hold Investor shares of the underlying funds. Would Vanguard ever consider holding Admiral share classes in these funds?

And, for example, the Vanguard Institutional Target Retirement 2050 Fund (VTRLX) holds Institutional shares of one underlying fund, Admiral shares of another fund, and Investor shares of two funds. What’s the line of thinking there?

Farrell: It is largely based on the cost to serve the underlying shareholder of the TRF or LifeStrategy Fund. These funds tend to attract small balance accounts and IRAs, and the cost to serve is disproportionately higher than funds with large and diverse shareholders. In terms of looking into adding holding Admiral in the Investor suite of TRFs, in short, the answer is yes — we consistently review our products, product structures, and product line-ups. However, given the size of the average TRF account and our cost allocation methodologies, we would not expect a change from Investor Shares. Specific to the underlying holdings of the Institutional suite of TRFs, again, it is cost to service the funds and our cost allocation methodologies that dictate the share class utilized.

—–

So, to paraphrase, Vanguard’s position here is, “in a Target Retirement or LifeStrategy fund, we hold whichever share class (or share classes) result in an expense ratio that most closely reflects the cost to service the fund’s shareholders.” In hindsight, that feels sort of obvious, given Vanguard’s general “at cost” pricing philosophy.