Most of my worldly wealth (not much, unfortunately ) is invested in Vanguard LifeStrategy funds. That’s OK as an investment, I think, but – maybe paranoid – I’m thinking if Vanguard were to go tits up, that would be me living under a bridge. So I’m wondering what alternatives there are which offer similar funds which are cheap to buy and similarly diversified. Any suggestions?

Aren’t the funds ringfenced to stop exactly this?

https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/need-help/answer/what-happens-to-my-money-if-vanguard-become-insolvent

Panic not. That said I think lifestrategy is a bit overweight towards the UK.

What happens to my investments if Vanguard becomes insolvent?
In the unlikely event that we become insolvent, your money and investments would be returned to you as quickly as possible, or transferred to another provider.

This is because your money and investments are held separately from our own. Any funds you own with us are registered in a nominee account and held in accordance with FCA rules. And any cash you hold with us is held in trust accounts at an authorised bank in accordance with FCA rules.

So if we were to become insolvent, an insolvency practitioner would be able to identify all the assets belonging to you and other investors and make sure they remain fully protected until returned to you or transferred to another provider.

Aah – OK – I will calm down 🙂

It was explained to me that your money is in whatever Vanguard has invested it in. It would take some time to unravel but unless the world was ending the diversity of investments they make means you’d get your money back, or more likely some other platform would take them over (probably with a big fee).

However I did have money with woodford and when winding that up they sold off the investments too cheap to their mates to profit on leaving investors well out of pocket.

If you want something else then you need to look at the spread of investments your vanguard product is in and choose something similar. Or build your own diverse portfolio based on your personal risk and interest. But you would need to open an account with another platform and bear in mind ISA rules, and it will be hard to beat the fees and ease which vanguard offer.

What they said re vanguard going belly up, your funds should be ring fenced. It could take a while to sort out though, during which time your money is frozen. If you do want to spread the small risk, as ever monevator has the answersMonevator fund of funds
https://monevator.com/passive-fund-of-funds-the-rivals/