Vanguard’s New Morningstar ETFs – Is CRSP Toast?

By John H. Robinson, Founder/Financial Planner

If you own a Vanguard ETF such as VTI, VO, VB, VUG, VTV or one of their corresponding Vanguard open-end mutual funds, you may have recently noticed something unusual.

The name has changed.

For example, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) is now called the Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market ETF.

The Vanguard Mid-Cap ETF is now the Vanguard Morningstar Mid-Cap ETF. Similar changes have been made to Vanguard’s most popular large-cap, small-cap, growth and value ETFs.

At first glance, this might look like a significant change to the investment.

It isn’t.

The reason for the name change is that the index provider formerly known as CRSP, the Center for Research in Security Prices, was acquired by Morningstar earlier this year. Morningstar subsequently changed the names of the CRSP indexes to Morningstar indexes and insisted on inserting its brand into funds that track the CRSP indexes.

Importantly, the underlying index methodologies did not change.

That means investors haven’t suddenly been moved from one investment strategy to another. The name on the fund has changed, but the investment philosophy and index methodology remain essentially the same. Vanguard says the affected funds’ investment objectives, strategies and policies remain unchanged.

So why should investors care?

Because the story behind CRSP is actually quite interesting, and it helps explain why Vanguard chose CRSP indexes in the first place. It also explains why Financial Planning Hawaii and Fee-Only Planning Hawaii prefer funds and ETFs that mirror CRSP indexes.

What Was CRSP?

CRSP stands for the Center for Research in Security Prices.

It was established at the University of Chicago in 1960 and became one of the most respected sources of historical financial market data in the investment industry.

CRSP’s importance goes well beyond the indexes used by Vanguard.

Its historical databases have been extensively used by academics and investment researchers studying stock-market returns, risk and asset pricing. The organization’s academic roots are one reason CRSP developed a reputation for rigorous, rules-based methodologies.  As a point of interest, CRSP provided the underlying monthly equities return data used in our own proprietary Nest Egg Guru retirement saving and spending simulation software.

Eventually, CRSP developed a family of investable U.S. equity indexes covering the total U.S. stock market, large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap stocks, as well as growth and value stocks.

Vanguard began using CRSP indexes for several of its U.S. equity funds in 2013. Today, those indexes underpin more than $3 trillion in U.S. equity investments.

Why Does Vanguard Like CRSP?

One reason is that CRSP takes a somewhat different approach to constructing market-capitalization indexes than some of its competitors, particularly FTSE Russell and S&P.

This matters because an “index” isn’t simply a list of stocks.

The index provider has to establish rules determining which companies belong in the index, when they are added or removed, how they are classified and how companies migrate between large-, mid- and small-cap categories.

Different index providers make different choices.

For example, CRSP defines its market-cap segments based on percentages of total U.S. market capitalization, rather than simply selecting a fixed number of companies.

CRSP’s large-cap index targets approximately the largest 85% of the U.S. market, while its mid-cap and small-cap indexes target specific portions of the remaining market. Russell, by comparison, uses fixed numbers of companies for many of its major indexes. The Russell 1000, for example, consists of approximately 1,000 companies.

That distinction can have meaningful consequences.

The Russell 1000 and a CRSP large-cap index may both be described as “large-cap” indexes, but they don’t necessarily own the same companies or have the same market-cap exposure.

In fact, Vanguard has pointed out that the differences among index providers can be surprisingly large.

CRSP vs. Russell: Growth and Value Aren’t Necessarily the Same

The differences become even more interesting when comparing growth and value indexes.

Most investors assume that a large-cap growth ETF is basically interchangeable with another large-cap growth ETF.

It isn’t.

Index providers have different definitions of “growth” and “value.”

According to Vanguard research, CRSP, Russell and S&P classify approximately 46% of large-cap stocks differently when determining whether they belong in growth or value indexes.

CRSP uses a multifactor approach to classify stocks. Its methodology considers factors including price-to-book, earnings, earnings growth, dividends, sales and return on assets.

Russell’s methodology is different.

S&P’s methodology is different again.

As a result, two ETFs with almost identical names can have meaningfully different portfolios.

That isn’t necessarily a problem. There is no universal definition of “growth” or “value.”

But it is an important consideration for financial advisors constructing portfolios using multiple index funds.

Why Some Advisors (Including Us) Prefer CRSP

This is one reason some advisors have developed a preference for CRSP indexes.

It isn’t because Russell indexes are bad. Russell produces widely respected and heavily used benchmarks.

The attraction of CRSP is its methodology.

CRSP was designed around the idea that an index should accurately represent the market segment it is intended to represent while minimizing unnecessary turnover and transaction costs.

Its indexes are reconstituted quarterly, use buffers around classification boundaries and employ a process called “packeting” to reduce the size of individual migrations. Changes are also phased over several days.

Those details may sound esoteric.

They aren’t.

Every time an index changes its holdings, the funds tracking that index potentially have to trade. Excessive turnover can create transaction costs, market-impact costs and, in taxable accounts, potentially unwanted capital gains.

CRSP’s methodology attempts to minimize those costs while keeping its indexes representative of the market.

CRSP also has a relatively sophisticated approach to IPOs. Eligible large companies can qualify for a “fast-track” process rather than waiting for the next regular quarterly reconstitution.

For advisors who believe an index should represent the investable market as efficiently and systematically as possible, these characteristics can be attractive.

Don’t Mix and Match Indexes Without Understanding Them

There is another reason this matters to financial advisors.

Suppose an advisor uses a CRSP large-cap value fund alongside a Russell small-cap fund and an S&P 500 fund.

On paper, the portfolio may appear beautifully diversified.

But the investor may have unintended overlaps or gaps because each index provider defines market segments differently.

Vanguard itself has warned advisors and investors about this issue, noting that combining funds based on different index methodologies can produce exposures that are different from what the investor intended.

This doesn’t mean you should never combine index families.

It means you should understand what you’re actually combining.

So What Happened to CRSP?

Now we get to the reason for Vanguard’s recent name changes.

In September 2025, Morningstar announced that it had agreed to acquire CRSP from the University of Chicago for approximately $375 million. The transaction subsequently closed on February 2, 2026, for $365 million, subject to customary adjustments.

Morningstar acquired both CRSP’s market indexes and its research data business.

The acquisition gave Morningstar a major presence in the U.S. equity-index business. The CRSP indexes alone serve as benchmarks for more than $3 trillion in U.S. equities.

Morningstar then decided to bring CRSP’s indexes under the Morningstar brand.

Effective July 28, 2026, the CRSP U.S. Total Market Index became the Morningstar U.S. Total Market Index.

The CRSP U.S. Large Cap Index became the Morningstar U.S. Large Cap Index, and similar changes were made throughout the CRSP index family.

Vanguard followed by adding “Morningstar” to the names of the affected funds effective July 29.

So VTI didn’t stop being the VTI investors have known for years.

It simply became the Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market ETF.

What Does This Mean for Vanguard Investors?

For most investors, the answer is simple:

Nothing.

There was no fund conversion.

There was no change in investment objective.

There was no change in the ETF ticker.

There was no change in the underlying methodology.

The CRSP methodology that Vanguard adopted years ago continues under the Morningstar name. Morningstar specifically stated that the rebranding was a name change and that the underlying methodologies would remain unchanged.

In other words, CRSP didn’t disappear.

It was acquired by Morningstar and given a new name.

And that is an important distinction.

The Bigger Lesson for Investors

The Vanguard name change provides an excellent reminder of something that investors frequently overlook:

An index fund is only as good as your understanding of the index it tracks.

VTI and another “total market” ETF may sound like interchangeable investments.

A Russell large-cap fund and a CRSP large-cap fund may sound virtually identical.

A growth ETF is a growth ETF, right?

Not necessarily.

The index methodology determines what you actually own.

For long-term investors, these differences may not always produce dramatic differences in returns. But over time, different definitions of market segments, different rebalancing rules and different approaches to managing index transitions can produce meaningful differences in portfolio composition and performance.

That is why I think investors should spend less time asking whether an ETF has a five-star Morningstar rating and more time understanding what index the ETF actually tracks.

And for advisors, the lesson is even more important.

The goal isn’t simply to find the cheapest ETF.

It is to understand the methodology behind the ETF and determine whether it produces the exposure you actually want.

For Vanguard investors, the good news is that the recent appearance of the Morningstar name doesn’t mean your favorite Vanguard index fund has suddenly changed.

CRSP is still there.

It just has a new owner, and now it has a new name. 

To borrow the signature closing line from the late radio broadcaster, Paul Harvey, “And now you know the rest of the story.”