Total Cost Reporting | Vanguard Canada

Advisors: simplify Total Cost Reporting for every client

Investors: are you ready for Total Cost Reporting?

At Vanguard, we believe that even small differences in fees can make a meaningful impact on your long-term savings and financial future.

The Client Relationship Model (CRM), implemented by the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), reinforces this belief by establishing regulations that require investment dealers and advisors to provide transparent disclosure about client account costs and performance.

Together, these principles ensure you have the complete picture of where your money goes and how it grows. Learn more about the latest changes:

What is Total Cost Reporting?

What's changing?

What new fees will be displayed?

Total cost reporting introduces no additional fees; it restructures the disclosure of existing costs to enhance transparency for investors.

Dealers/advisors will be required to disclose the Fund Expense Ratio (FER) expressed as a percentage for each fund class or series that you held in your investment account(s).

Your reporting will also include the total dollar amount of fund expenses paid over the year, plus any direct fund charges (for example, short-term trading fees), where applicable.

What is FER?

Key Terms

Management Expense Ratio (MER):

Ongoing costs of managing and operating a fund (management fee and operating expenses plus associated taxes).

Trading Expense Ratio (TER):

Costs related to buying and selling securities inside the fund.

Fund Expense Ratio (FER):

A combined measure that includes both MER and TER.

Why this matters to you?

Transparency

It gives you clearer, more complete cost information so you can better understand the total cost of investing in funds.

Decision-making

It may make it easier to compare costs across funds and product providers.

Value

It supports more informed questions and conversations with your advisor about fees, services, and investment outcomes.

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Fees can impact performance, how can we help?

For the past 15 years, we have helped bring down the cost of investing to the tune of $200 million in savings passed on to Canadian investors through our fee reductions. 

We focus on creating value for our clients, not extracting value from them. Every dollar saved in fees is a dollar that stays in an investor’s pocket. And that compounds over time.

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The value of advice in a Total Cost Reporting world :

At Vanguard, we believe in the enduring value of financial advice. As Total Cost Reporting gives you greater transparency into your investment costs, an financial advisor plays a crucial role in helping you understand the value you're receiving.

Financial advisors provide more than just investment recommendations. Through personalized planning, informed guidance, behavioral coaching, and ongoing support, they can help you move forward with greater confidence.

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Total Cost Reporting under CRM3