The Vanguard Mega Cap 300 Index Fund is replacing its index and changing its name in the next few months, according to a
The fund will change its name to Vanguard Mega Cap index Fund “to better coincide with its new target index,” the CRSP US Mega Cap Index, which replaced the MSCI US Large Cap 300 Index.
“The board believes that the new index is well-constructed and offers comprehensive coverage of the Fund’s market segment. In addition, Vanguard’s agreement with the new index provider may result in considerable savings to shareholders over time in the form of lower expense ratios,” according to the filing.
However, the firm is not disclosing the exact timing of the index change to investors in order to protect the fund from potential “front running” by traders.
The $456 million fund was launched in December 2007 and is managed by Ryan Ludt. It has an expense ratio of 12 basis points, according to Morningstar.
In a press release this morning, the firm said it plans to transition six international stock index funds to FTSE benchmarks and 16 U.S. stock and balanced index funds to new benchmarks developed by the University of Chicago's Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP).
“The indexes from FTSE and CRSP are well constructed, offer comprehensive coverage of their respective markets, and meet Vanguard’s ‘best practice’ standards for market benchmarks,” stated Vanguard Chief Investment Officer Gus Sauter.
“Equally important, and with our clients’ best interests in mind, we negotiated licensing agreements for these benchmarks that we expect will enable us to deliver significant value to our index fund and ETF shareholders and lower expense ratios over time.”
