[jut111]

ETF's tend to have even lower fees then vanguard but you pay commissions. If your talking about a large sum of money and very infrequent trading this is probably better (and in your case) easier then going through vanguard directly. If it's not a ton of money you'll save more going through vanguard and paying no commission on their funds.

Also since you say the account is taxable, keep in mind that the value index and small value index are not very tax efficient. When a company gets to expensive, meaning it's price has gone up, vanguard has to sell it incurring a big capital gain to stay in compliance with the index. Value funds in general are much better off in tax sheltered accounts.