Vestmark Selected to Power Vanguard Custom Model Portfolios for RIAs

Quick Summary

Vestmark has been selected by Vanguard to provide the technology infrastructure for Vanguard Custom Model Portfolios. This collaboration enables registered investment advisors (RIAs) to deliver personalized, tax-efficient wealth management solutions at scale by combining Vanguard's investment expertise with Vestmark's advanced trading and tax-management platform.

How does Vestmark support Vanguard Custom Model Portfolios?

Vestmark provides the essential infrastructure for Vanguard Custom Model Portfolios, focusing on trading, tax-management, and advisor-service capabilities. The solution is designed to help RIAs manage open-architecture portfolios that include mutual funds, ETFs, separately managed accounts (SMAs), direct indexing, and alternative investments within a unified managed account (UMA) structure.

• Trading and rebalancing for multi-asset and single-asset-class models.
• Tax-aware portfolio transitions and ongoing tax management.
• A white-labeled digital experience for account viewing, performance tracking, and proposal creation.
• Integrations with leading custodial platforms to ensure scalable implementation.

What benefits does this offer to Registered Investment Advisors?

The partnership allows RIAs to modify Vanguard models to reflect specific client preferences regarding investment products and management styles. By utilizing Vestmark's platform, advisors can deliver higher levels of personalization without increasing operational complexity. This is particularly relevant as Vestmark currently supports more than 72,000 financial advisors and more than five million investor accounts.

“Vanguard has built its reputation around disciplined investing, low costs and long-term investor outcomes,” said Karl Roessner, Chief Executive Officer at Vestmark. “By combining that investment expertise with Vestmark’s portfolio-management, trading and tax-management infrastructure, we can help RIAs deliver greater personalization without adding operational complexity. We are proud to support Vanguard as they bring this new offering to the RIA market.”

How does this collaboration impact the wealth management market?

This collaboration strengthens Vanguard's presence in the RIA channel by providing scalable technology and intuitive workflows. With Vestmark supporting six of the 10 largest managed account program providers and over $2 trillion in assets, the infrastructure is built to handle significant volume while maintaining investment rigor.

“Advisors increasingly expect access to investment solutions through scalable technology and intuitive workflows,” said Eve Cout, Head of Advisor Solutions, Financial Advisor Services at Vanguard. “By pairing Vanguard Custom Model Portfolios with Vestmark’s established implementation platform, we can help RIAs customize and manage Vanguard portfolios efficiently while retaining investment rigor and control over important investment decisions.”

FF NEWS TAKE:

This partnership moves the needle by bridging the gap between institutional-grade investment strategies and the growing demand for hyper-personalization in the RIA space. By leveraging Vestmark's massive scale—supporting $2 trillion in assets—Vanguard is effectively removing the operational barriers that previously prevented advisors from customizing low-cost models at scale. It is a significant validation of Vestmark's UMA and tax-optimization capabilities in a competitive wealthtech landscape.