Vanguard Expands Fund Lineup, Plans Further Expansion

Vanguard has launched eight index mutual funds and nine exchange-traded funds based on S&P domestic stock benchmarks.

Among the products are ETF shares of Vanguard’s flagship Vanguard 500 Index Fund, the industry’s first index mutual fund for individual investors and currently the second-largest index mutual fund,with $86.8 billion in net assets, according to Lipper Inc. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF has an expense ratio of 0.06%, which is the lowest expense ratio for an ETF based on the S&P 500 Index, according to Morningstar Inc.

Vanguard’s family of ETFs will expand to 55 offerings with the introduction of eight new equity funds and ETFs targeting the growth and value segments of the S&P 500 Index and the growth, value, and blend segments of the S&P MidCap 400 and SmallCap 600 Indexes.

Bill McNabb, Vanguard’s chairman and CEO, said that the new funds will “appeal to financial advisors and institutional investors seeking to build portfolios based on S&P benchmarks. In particular, the new ETFs will offer additional choices to investors and help Vanguard continue to build momentum in the ETF marketplace.”

Vanguard, which is based in Valley Forge, Pa., has $23 billion in ETF net cash flow through the first eight months of the year to lead the industry. The company said that its equity ETFs accounted for 74% of its total ETF cash flow and 51% of the industry’s equity ETF positive cash flow .

Vanguard’s ETF assets under management have increased 60% to $113 billion from a year earlier.

According to Cogent, Vanguard ETFs are increasingly popular with financial advisors. The report said that Vanguard was ranked first among ETF providers in advisor loyalty. Vanguard received a Net Promoter Score of 33% compared to the 20% score of the nearest competitor. The report also found that Vanguard outperformed all other major ETF providers in nine of ten areas of client experience and service.

Vanguard said that it plans to launch 11 additional index funds with ETF shares in the next few months. On the equity side, Vanguard will add a suite of seven funds with ETF shares to offer exposure to value, growth, and blend segments of the U.S. stock market based on the large-cap Russell 1000 Index series and the small-cap Russell 2000 Index series.

A broad market fund and ETF seeking to track the Russell 3000 Index will also be offered.
On the bond side, Vanguard will offer three new municipal bond index funds with traditional and exchange-traded shares, tracking benchmarks in the S&P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index series. The expense ratio for Vanguard’s new municipal ETFs is estimated to be 0.12%.
Vanguard has also filed for a new real estate fund, which will be benchmarked to the S&P Global ex-U.S. Property Index. Vanguard Global ex-U.S. Real Estate Index Fund will offer Investor Shares, Institutional Shares, Signal Shares, and ETF Shares.

After the introduction of these products, Vanguard would offer 66 ETFs, including suites of domestic stock ETFs based on benchmarks from MSCI, S&P, and Russell.

Vanguard, which had nearly $1.4 trillion in U.S. mutual fund assets under management as of Aug. 31, offers more than 160 funds to U.S. investors and more than 50 additional funds in non-U.S. markets

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