Vanguard has long been known to have one the most informative Web sites for retail fund investors. Now the Valley Forge, Pennsylvania-based firm is beefing up the areas of the site devoted to its brokerage and annuity products.

The firm claims more than 500,000 brokerage clients.

Nearly two million of Vanguard's 17 million account holders have registered to use the Vanguard.com site, revealed Tim Buckley, principal of Vanguard's Information Technology Group. He added that sixty percent of transactions now occur through the Web site.

Vanguard officials say that the changes were made to the site to encourage investors to use the Web for these services. The move comes as most brokers face a decline in trading activity due to the falloff in the stock market. By directing investors to the Web, the firm would presumably be able to reduce costs and reduce the need to add to the number of phone support staff supporting those business.

The new site design is intended to make it easier for investors to trade securities, track their holdings, and conduct research. The changes also cover the Vanguard FundAccess supermarket that carries some 2,600 funds. Investors are able to view online prospectuses for all of those funds.

For annuity holders, Vanguard upgraded its site to show account balances, recent transactions and portfolio allocations. The site alos now allows online transfers between subaccounts. Fixed annuity holders may also review their guaranteed interest rate on the site.  

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