Well, 2022 was not an easy year for investors. Stocks entered bear market territory. The bond market had its worst year in at least four decades as inflation reached upwards of 9% and Federal Reserve governors tightened policy more aggressively than they have in decades. Oh, and war broke out in Europe as Russia invaded Ukraine while Covid continued to impose restrictions on businesses and people around the globe.
Vanguard expanded its ESG line-up, hired and fired several outside portfolio managers and began testing new cash management solutions. But the overarching theme out of Malvern was continued poor customer service and technology missteps.
Let’s hope both the market and Vanguard’s customer service teams can turn things around in 2023.
You can find my 2023 outlook “Just Keep Going” here and I’ll follow up with a deeper look at how the markets fared in 2022, but here are the events that caught our attention throughout the year:
JANUARY
As planned, Gemma Wright-Casparius, manager of Inflation-Protected Securities and several Treasury funds, retires … Vanguard announces plans to launch Target Retirement 2070 (due in April) and to merge Target Retirement 2015 into Target Retirement Income (expected to happen in July) … Vanguard files with the SEC to launch Baillie Gifford Global Positive Impact Stock. The active fund is due out in the second quarter and plans to adopt the existing Baillie Gifford Positive Change Equities (BPESX) fund … Treasury Money Market’s yield begins rising from the near-zero-bound of 0.01% … Vanguard hires Ariel Management as a third sub-adviser for Explorer Value. TOP FUND: Energy ETF, 17.5%. WORST: Russell 2000 Growth ETF, -13.6%.