Vanguard Plans Broad Expansion of Index Offerings
VALLEY FORGE, PA, June 24, 2010 -- Vanguard today announced plans to expand its index fund family, introducing 19 new funds with ETF Shares to provide investors with additional low-cost stock and bond choices. The firm will also launch ETF Shares of its flagship Vanguard 500 Index Fund. The new ETFs will feature expense ratios that are substantially below those of competing products. (Source: Morningstar, 3/31/2010).
Over the next year, these new funds and 20 new ETFs will broaden the firm's equity lineup with core funds tracking benchmarks from a wider range of providers; add indexed municipal products to Vanguard's fixed income stable; and present investors with the option of an international real estate fund and ETF.
"We recognize that institutional investors and financial advisors may have a preference for certain benchmarks, and our goal is to offer them best-in-class funds and ETFs based on a choice of leading index providers, including FTSE, MSCI, Russell, and S&P," said Vanguard CEO Bill McNabb. "Vanguard's focus has been on developing a full array of stock and bond funds and ETFs to cover domestic and international markets and market segments. We are taking this logical next step to provide multiple options within the domestic stock markets and more choice for bond investors."
On the equity side, Vanguard is adding 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 and small cap Russell 2000® index series. A broad market fund and ETF seeking to track the Russell 3000® Index will also be offered. In addition, Vanguard will complete its S&P lineup with 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.
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 new real estate fund 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.
Registration statements for the 19 new funds and ETFs, and the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF were filed with the SEC today.
Vanguard pioneered index investing for individuals in 1976 with the launch of the Vanguard 500 Index Fund, which now has $91 billion in net assets. The company launched its first ETF in 2001-Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (ticker: VTI), which is now one of the largest ETFs in the market with $14 billion in net assets. In the past year, Vanguard's ETF assets under management have more than doubled, rising from $50 billion to more than $100 billion across its lineup of 46 bond and stock ETFs, and Vanguard currently captures one out of every two dollars flowing to ETF products (source: Bloomberg, 05/31/2010).
About Vanguard
Vanguard, headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, is one of the world's largest investment management companies and a leading provider of company-sponsored retirement plan services. Vanguard manages nearly $1.4 trillion in U.S. mutual fund assets. Vanguard offers more than 160 funds to U.S. investors and more than 50 additional funds in non-U.S. markets
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