The Vanguard Group is dividing its multi-trillion dollar lineup of ETFs and mutual funds—which includes the world’s largest ETF, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO)—between a pair of investment advisor teams for the first time, as asset managers encounter an investing landscape reshaped by technology and the demand for fresh products.
Vanguard, the world’s second-largest asset manager with $10 trillion across a range of funds, is creating a pair of teams called Vanguard Capital Management and Vanguard Portfolio Management, according to a statement. Both had previously been under a single entity, The Vanguard Group.
As Vanguard turns 50 years old, asset managers are confronting challenges, including surging demand for exchange-traded funds, slowing mutual fund inflows, active fund growth, and surging investor interest in cryptocurrency and technologies like blockchain that may replace physical assets in some cases. Vanguard, the No. 2 ETF issuer behind BlackRock’s iShares, has also come under criticism for a failure to improve aspects of its customer service.
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“Their mammoth size now requires more focus than a single team could handle,” Daniel Sotiroff, CFA, Morningstar Direct senior manager research analyst, wrote in a note. Vanguard manages both the world’s largest ETF, the $681.6 billion VOO, and mutual fund, the $1.8 trillion Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSAX).
The sheer size of the Malvern, Pennsylvania-based company’s holdings is creating other problems, Sotiroff noted. Vanguard owns big stakes in most publicly traded stocks and, with some of those stakes exceeding regulatory limits, the company may have to cap ownership of some stocks, he wrote.
“They may not track their target index as accurately as they had in the past,” Sotiroff wrote. “Likewise, it may restrict an active manager’s ability to express their best ideas.”
Vanguard Top 5 ETFs—Source: FactSet
Vanguard Capital Management will include fixed income led by Sara Devereux, and global equity index management led by Rodney Comegys. Vanguard Portfolio Management will include Quantitative Equity Group, and will also lead Strategic Equity Index Management led by John Ameriks. They will report to Vanguard President and Chief Investment Officer Greg Davis.
Vanguard, with $3.3 trillion in 92 exchange-traded funds, said the changes take effect next year.
Note: Second-to-last paragraph recast to better reflect groups’ structures.