Account opening and trading forms for direct retail

Management of our funds is delegated to VGI (The Vanguard Group Inc) our parent company and is conducted out of our offices globally.

We select our fund domiciles based upon a number of criteria including tax efficiency, costs, economies of scale, and the ability to implement our investment strategy. Given these factors, we have selected a combination of UK-domiciled OEICs and Ireland domiciled UCITS funds.

As an investor, the domicile of the fund should not have an impact on you. Please speak to your financial adviser to discuss your personal circumstances.

For our European clients, Vanguard’s business model is centred on providing a broad array of low cost investment funds and exchange traded funds ("ETFs") through our European domiciled UCITS products. In addition, the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive ("AIFMD"), which entered into force throughout the European Union on 22 July 2013, limits the ability to market U.S. domiciled funds and US domiciled ETFs in the European Economic Area ("EEA"). In order to comply with the AIFMD Vanguard does not market Vanguard’s U.S. domiciled funds or U.S. domiciled ETFs to investors in the EEA.

Please note that this does not mean that U.S. domiciled funds or U.S. domiciled ETFs are "unsuitable" products for investors in the EEA. The AIFMD does not prevent an investor in the EEA from investing in Vanguard U.S. domiciled funds and/or U.S. domiciled ETFs on their own initiative (for example, through a broker or an exchange).

We will continue to provide you with the same high level of client service from our London office. The implementation of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive ("AIFMD") does not affect investments acquired in Vanguard’s U.S. domiciled funds or U.S. domiciled ETFs before 22 July 2013. You will be able to continue to top-up your existing investments and purchase shares in additional Vanguard U.S. domiciled funds and/or U.S. domiciled ETFs where this is solely at your own initiative. The AIFMD has, however, required us to make certain procedural changes in respect of account opening, additional investments and redemptions. Further information can be provided by our Client Services Team.

Vanguard chooses each index that our passively managed funds will track based on how accurately the index tracks the returns of the designated market segment. We use major market indices which have been developed by long-established index providers.

When you invest with any fund manager, you will have to pay a number of charges. These include an Annual Management Charge (known as the AMC) which covers the fund manager's own costs of managing the fund over the year.

However, with most managers you will also typically pay additional running costs. These are likely to include administration fees, audit fees (where an independent auditor checks that all accounts are fair and honest), custody fees (the cost of holding securities in a secure and legal manner) and other operational expenses. The AMC and these additional running costs make up the fund's OCF.

Our approach is different as we pay all running costs out of our AMC, therefore we expect that our AMC will be the same as our OCF. This helps us to be more transparent and gives you a better understanding of the cost of your investment.

Will your OCF/Annual Management Charges (AMCs) change?We may revise our OCF/AMC from time to time where the total costs of administering the fund change.

The Funds impose entry fees to cover the transaction costs associated with Stamp Duty Reserve Tax (SDRT), specific to the UK market. Imposing an entry fee allows the Funds to minimise the performance drag (negative tracking error) associated with transaction costs like the SDRT. Moreover, the imposition of the fee directly to incoming investors ensures that long-term shareholders are not impacted by the entry or exit costs of transaction shareholders.

The UK charges a SDRT on the purchases of any U.K. security or listed security which maintains its register of shareholders in the UK. Referred to as Section 87, this tax is a cash levy of 0.50% that is applied when purchases from an investor require UK equity securities to be purchased by the fund and in some instances, when the shares of a fund investing in UK stocks are redeemed and subsequently reissued.

If you would like to purchase, exchange or redeem shares in Vanguard exchange-traded funds (ETFs) only.

ETFs trade on the stock market just like company shares and are listed on most of the large stockbroking platforms.

Please contact your stockbroker regarding investing.

The London Stock Exchange maintains a directory of UK stockbrokers which you might find useful.

For any questions regarding our ETFs, please contact our Client Services team on:

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 3753 4305  or UK freephone: 0800 032 3731
Email: uk_client_services@vanguard.co.uk

For any trading-related questions, please contact our Capital Markets team on:

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 3753 6989
Email: capitalmarkets@vanguard.co.uk