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Comment by mark_l_watson | Hacker News Reader

This story irritates me. I have been using Vanguard for decades and have always been very happy with their services.

Strange lawsuit. Horrible if the case goes against Vanguard. We live in a strange world.

Not at all. Vanguard, thanks to Jack Bogle, is virtually the sole outlier in the entire financial industry, which largely views its customers as an annuity to be tapped. They have many, many competitors which would be overjoyed if Vanguard were essentially forced by the courts to charge the "market" rate, thus eliminating their competitive advantage.

Yes, long term Vanguard client here. Because I opted to go with someone with lower costs the other funds are unhappy and want Vanguard to pay more in taxes?

So does the shoe then fit if Vanguard triples their fees making them the most expensive, do the other management companies then need to pay taxes on the difference between their now lower fees and Vanguards?

I think this is a ploy by the management firms that are being undercut and in a tight market (or a down market) the management fees become important.

> I think this is a ploy by the management firms that are being undercut and in a tight market (or a down market) the management fees become important.

I'm pretty sure it is almost exclusively a ploy by David Danon (who brought this complaint) to extract a massive whistleblower fee.

Good point. I'm pretty sure that Vanguard has thought this through. The article says "Danon collected a $117,000 whistle-blower bounty in Texas in November, meaning that Vanguard paid the state at least $2.3 million. It’s possible that Vanguard’s payment had nothing to do with the fee issue." So I'm going to guess it's some other arcane thing they missed.

My feelings / thoughts exactly. That's so backwards, hard to find words.

This story is, essentially, reporting on someone accusing you (and everyone else who owns a vanguard fund. Which includes me btw.) of a tax dodge.

It's not surprising that it irritates you.

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