Vanguard Personal Advisor vs Target Date Funds

Compare the cost of Vanguard PAS (0.30%) with a self-managed blend of Target Date funds

How This Works

Vanguard Personal Advisor Services (PAS) charges 0.30% of your portfolio per year for ongoing advice and management. You can instead self-manage using Vanguard’s Target Retirement funds (e.g. VTINX, VTWNX, VTTVX … VTTSX, VLXVX, VSVNX), which have expense ratios around 0.08%. This tool compares the two: same expected return, different fees—so you see the opportunity cost of staying with PAS.

You can allocate your self-managed portfolio across conservative (Income / 2020), moderate (2025–2035), and aggressive (2040–2070) Target Date funds. The math uses a blended expense ratio of about 0.08% for the self-managed side.

Your Portfolio & Assumptions

Current Portfolio Value $1,000,000

Vanguard PAS Fee (%) Vanguard Personal Advisor Services: 0.30%

Target Date Fund Blend Expense (%) Typical Vanguard Target Retirement fund expense ratio ~0.08%

Investment Timeline (Years) 20 yrs

Expected Annual Return (Before Fees) (%) 6%

Use a conservative assumption (e.g. 5–7%)

Timeline start year The real-world year when the simulation begins: year 1 in the results is this year, year 2 is the next calendar year, and so on.

Annual Withdrawal (% of portfolio) 0%

Set to 0 for no withdrawal. Many retirees use ~4% (e.g. 4.2% starting in a given year).

Withdrawals start year Calendar year when you begin taking the annual withdrawal % above. Example: 2027 if you won’t withdraw until then.

Self-Managed Allocation (Target Date funds)

Allocate what share of your portfolio would go into conservative, moderate, and aggressive Target Date funds. Percentages are normalized to 100%.

Conservative (Income / 2020) 40%

VTINX, VTWNX

Moderate (2025–2035) 40%

VTTVX, VTHRX, VTTHX

Aggressive (2040–2070) 20%

VFORX, VTIVX, VFIFX, VFFVX, VTTSX, VLXVX, VSVNX

The Cost of PAS vs Self-Managed Target Date

Vanguard PAS

Target Date Blend
~0.08% fee

You're Giving Up

Year 1 Fee

Year Portfolio

Total Fees Paid

Portfolio Growth Over Time

Cumulative Fees Paid Over Time

Key Insights

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Direct Fees: You'll pay more with PAS over years.

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Lost Growth: Those fee dollars would have grown to in the Target Date blend.

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Your self-managed blend: (conservative / moderate / aggressive).

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