Vanguard Introduces New Global Fund

Leading mutual fund and exchange-traded fund provider Vanguard has launched the Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund. This fund is set to track the performance of the FTSE All-World Index, which is a market-capitalized-weighted index serving as a benchmark of about 2,900 stocks throughout 47 countries.

Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund has three share classes: ETF shares, investor shares and institutional shares. The ETF class has an expected .25% expense ratio, making it the lowest cost ETF tracking a global benchmark. The investor class requires a minimum initial investment of $3,000 and has an expense ratio of .45%. The institutional class requires a minimum initial investment fee of $5 million and has an expense ratio of .20%.

The investor and institutional shares both have a 2% redemption fee on shares sold within two months of purchase to discourage short-term investing and a .25% purchase fee to pay transaction costs of foreign securities.

Vanguard currently manages more than $620 billion in indexed assets with over $50 billion in ETF assets. It introduced its first index mutual fund more than 30 years ago and now has a collective offering of 52 funds and 38 ETFs.