YouSaid · the spoken record

Thomas Rampulla

lines on the record: 76
first: 2022-10-14
most recent: 2022-10-14
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Think about trading. I'm buying individuals. It's free. Right advice more accessible now than ever. I can decide to do it digitally, I can go hybrid and have digital and an advisor with me, or I can see my advisor down the street and go in person. So there's so many services there. There's so many tools for investors. There's so many tools for advisors to help investors. I think it's a fabulous time.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm an optimistic guy, Barry. But seriously, I think if you think about the markets and market structure, you think about this. You can get exposure to the entire stock market in ETF for two and a half, three basis points. That's pretty powerful.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, we have a really good risk management tool as well. It's through our portfolio and analytics and consulting service. And you run a portfolio through it and it'll give you all your risk exposures. We can consult with you on, hey, you might be overexposed here or underexposed. Did you know that? Oh, you didn't. Do you want to do something about it? We can help you with that. So we provide a similar service to our clients. They deem it really, really valuable. It's interesting. I get every day I get net promoter scores from clients. And this service in particular, I can't remember a time when it hasn't been like a 9 out of 10 or a 10 out of 10. They see it as incredibly valuable. And one thing they cite verbatim all the time is objectivity. You know, hey, it really feels like Vanguard's trying to help me out, not trying to necessarily sell me a product. And so we distributed that through thousands of advisors. We do thousands of those engagements a year.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That we talked about before, or some technology capabilities for our advisors to use, and what we've done is taken some of those capabilities and deliver them to the FAS clients, the financial advisor services client, to help them drive better outcomes for their clients. So healthcare cost estimator is a really great example. We partnered with a firm in this space and developed a module to help with healthcare costs and determining healthcare costs in retirement. And we offer that module and a lot of materials around it and client and client materials to advisors to help them talk about healthcare with their clients. It's typically the largest expense people have. They have trouble getting their head around it. And it's a really valuable tool. Just an example of one of the things we do.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so I think one of the unique things about Vanguard is we serve a lot of different markets, right? So we serve financial advisors, we serve retail investors, and we actually have an advice business of our own. And through that advice business, we've developed a lot of capabilities, whether it's the thought leadership, advisors alpha.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Those investors in our funds who own the company. And as we grow and grow, that scale helps us drive down the expense ratios.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, our fee cuts are not a pricing marketing strategy, Barry. It's a function of the corporate structure of Vanguard. So we're really a mutual mutual fund company. What I mean by that is if you're an investor in one of our funds, you own a little pro rata piece of Vanguard. And if you think about that from a leadership perspective, a management perspective, you focus on one constituent, you the investor, and that's it. Don't have to worry about my shareholders on Wall Street. I don't have to worry about some family or family office that owns me. It's all about you. So as we grow, become more efficient, we get scale, we sort of make a profit, and we take that profit and we do two things with it. One, we invest in the business to better serve you. So better digital experience if you're a retail investor, more services for advisors. We also take that profit and drive down expense ratios. And really, that's what we're all about. Delivering value back to...”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Leaves a mark That's right That's right. You can obtain alpha even if you use all beta as underlying investments. The real value is the behavioral coaching and the tax management. Again, the more complex value add around financial planning.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, Advisor's Alpha, we all know and believe very strongly today that advisors help clients. In fact, at Vanguard, which is a big shift from many years ago, we think most investors would be well served with using a financial advisor. And they bring a lot of value, right? So there's the, hey, I'll work with you and we'll develop goals and a plan how to get there. They'll construct a portfolio. They'll do tax planning. So they'll harvest losses to offset future gains. They'll do estate planning and other complex financial planning. And so what Fran and his team did, they did research and said, how much alpha does an advisor add through the services they provide? And it's hard to pin that down exactly, Barry, but we've come up with about 300 basis points or three percentage points of alpha working with an advisor. And if you think about that, you pay an advisor 50 basis points, 100 basis point, whatever, they're providing on average annually 3%. So really good value there.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Both. We do the typical stuff, Mark and Economic Outlooks and research there, product research, but importantly helping advisors work with their clients, coaching them through tough times like this. So we do have materials and research target at the advisor, but we also help them out and target their end client. Vanguard deals with tens of millions of individual investors and we know how to speak to them very clearly and very candidly and very openly. So we leverage that expertise and we help advisors speak to their clients about you name it, market savings, all the things that they talk them about.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, we still don't do that. We like the transparency of an explicit fee, but I think the move to fee-based advice in the broker-dealer community really helped drive that. So an advisor charges for the advice that they provide to clients, and that pays the bills. And so we don't do the payment for distribution. Now, it's pretty limited to ETFs with our broker dealer relationships, not exclusively. So the model around ETFs is a little different. There isn't that same payment for distribution services of mutual funds. That's right, Barry.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, well, first of all, we work with financial advisors of all types in the industry, non-Vanguard financial advisors. So you've got Brokaders, independent registered investment advisors, RAAs, and bank wealth advisors. And we have a team that serves those advisors in the home offices of those advisors talking about Vanguard's product and educating about the product. We also do a lot of education around advice and behavioral finance and coaching and all these things to help advisors drive great outcomes for their clients.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was told three years to five years, and I ended up being there seven years and probably would have stayed even longer, but I got the opportunity Bill McNab again, who I know you know. Was CO and asked me if I'd come back and join senior staff and lead the FAS business, which was a lot bigger than when I left in 2008. And I was thrilled to be able to do that.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was a fabulous experience. I was coming off helping start our financial advisor business, the business I lead today. I did that for about six or seven years, and then Bill McNab, the CEO at the time, asked me if I'd go and start a similar business in the UK and run the European operation. So packed up my wife and my four kids and went to London, and it was an unbelievable experience. It felt like the old days at Vanguard, you know, you were coming in, starting up. I was employee number one in London. We're taking on high-cost funds, active managers, sort of the industry trying to bring transparency and low cost to the industry. And it was just really fun to build that business. And we had a great team there.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, we picked up Sher Right, we picked up share there. And I do think that trusted brand people started to understand that they own the company and the benefits of that structure are enormous and many. And so coming out of the financial crisis and out of the financial crisis, we really started to take off. I was in London at the time and you could see, wow, things are really starting to happen here.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm not sure if there was ever a moment where I said, wow, this is, you know, we're big. I do think after the global financial crisis. Yeah. We really started to get momentum. Our funds held up well. We served investors. He is during.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, not at all. It was a tough go early on. And Jack was adamant about, hey, cash flow and market share is an outcome. We have to just do what's focused on doing what's right for investors. Don't worry about growth. He really hammered that home to us. So we didn't really think big like that. We were just trying to do the right thing. So yeah, I'd say absolutely not. Had no idea how big we'd be.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Charlie Ellis, another one, you know, the losers game, his book there. So there was a lot of academic research around, and it started to become practical. People started to really see it and feel it. And that started to give us a little bit of wind in our sales.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, really talking about indexing, Jack taking that on, taking the industry on. People started to get disappointed in performance. You had star managers in the early 90s that sort of, the shine came off the star a little bit. So indexing had a little bit more of a appeal cost. You know, when you really hammer home what you can control as an investor, a cost, it finally started to catch on with people. Like, hey, I can get low cost through indexing and get the market return. Good returns”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think a couple things, Barry. First of all, we had some real zealots. You know, the Bogle Heads of today, which you're probably familiar with. Sure. They stumbled onto Vanguard. We didn't do advertising. We didn't sell. Actually, Jack Bogle wouldn't let us say the word seller product or advertising. He actually had to put a dollar in a jar near his office if you did. But we had something special, and I think people realize that people may not even really understood that they own the company by investing in the funds they own the company, but you got this core base of people that really identified with Vanguard, felt like they're part of the club, and great word of mouth. So that was helpful. We had some great performance from some of our active funds early days. Windsor Fun, John Neff, superstar fund manager, that helped.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, that's right. We were communists. Why settle for average all those things? But, you know, Jack Bogle was at the helm when I started. I was fortunate enough to work with him for about eight years. And he was so passionate about our mission. We had partnership picnic every summer and he would get up and speak and it would fire you up for the rest of the year. The guy was incredibly inspirational. And you really felt like you were taking on the establishment and doing something special. So it was really, really fun startup. Very collaborative felt like a family. And it took a while to start growing, to be honest with you. I mean, we really didn't start growing probably in the mid-90s. Started to get a little bit of attention then”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. It was a startup. It felt like a startup. I mean, it wasn't quite a startup. Probably we probably had 700 employees at the time, but only about 30 billion in assets under management. And we're trying to figure things out and grow. Nobody really cared about indexing. And if they did care about it, it was usually a pretty negative thoughts about indexing. You know, we were called unamerican. Right.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not from Malvern to Phil. Actually, you could take the train, but at that time it was a long time ago. I think I graduated in'93. It was more convenient to drive.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Went to Drexel part time while I was at Vanguard. Did that commute down to Philadelphia from the suburbs three times a week for a number of years. Which”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I looked and I was like, huh, no, I don't think so. And they said, What do they do? I said, I think it's a supermarket or something like that. So that's how clueless I was. But it was really lucky. I had this friend start at Vanguard in March of 1988, quickly realized it was a pretty special place. You know, it's a place where it's really incredibly mission driven. It's got such a sense of purpose. We're owned by our client. It's all these things that actually took me a while to realize working there. But yeah, it was a little bit of a by chance. I wasn't really looking for Vanguard, but somehow I found it and got really, really lucky.”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, believe it or not, Barry, I wanted to go to Wall Street coming out of school and came up to New York. Wall Street didn't work out for a variety of reasons, but I ended up working sort of in an adjacent industry in the portfolio management software business and really wasn't where my passion was. So decided to make the move from New York to Philadelphia and I had a friend that worked at Vanguard. I honestly knew nothing about Vanguard. In fact, I was at a Philadelphia career fair when I first graduated and there was a Vanguard table there and somebody said, you want to go interview a Vanguard?”
2022-10-14 · Masters in Business · Thomas Rampulla on Vanguard's Mission · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source