Vanguard Mutual Funds

Vanguard Mutual Funds are one of the most popular in the mutual fund field. It is highly likely that you will encounter them from time to time while browsing through the mutual fund sources. After a quick check in any dictionary you have available, you will see that "vanguard" represents the troops of an army that are situated in the front lines during a battle.

The Vanguard Group History

The Vanguard Group roots can be traced back to the distant 1975. After its insecure start, Vanguard has managed to establish itself as one of the most well known names in the mutual fund business. Investors prefer the opportunities of Vanguard due to its many advantages, and as a result the fund has accumulated more than $800 billion with which it successfully operates.

Vanguard Fund Family

The portfolio of mutual funds that the Vanguard Group offers exceeds the number of 100. Among them the Vanguard 500 Index Fund represents the biggest mutual fund that the company offers. Its main competitor for the first place as the largest fund in the world is Fidelity Magellan Fund.

The Vanguard Group is famous for its outreaching educational resources available to the users of their website. There is a special section allocated for such purposes named "Education, Planning and Advice". Extensive information in the form of articles, news and quizzes can be found there. The Vanguard family is also well known for the expertise, which is offered regarding indexing. As pioneers in the index fund field (1974), the company has accumulated abundant experience, which is readily offered to Vanguard's clients.

The Low Expenses of Vanguard

As the operating cost of Vanguard represent one-fourth of that of the average mutual fund, the first has won its image of charging low fees. Additionally, if you are one of the investors who truly appreciate his/her money, you will probably highly value Vanguard's load free mutual funds.

Vanguard Awards

Being for quite a long time in the mutual fund business, Vanguard has excelled and has been greatly awarded for his contribution to the development of the mutual fund field.

Some of their awards include the following:

• "Best of the Web" in 2000, awarded by Forbes for www.vanguard.com being the "Best of the Best" among the present mutual fund websites.
• "Best Service" awarded by the Mutual Fund Magazine. Additionally, they proclaimed the Vanguard mutual family as their favorite one among the present.
• "Best Buy" of Forbes. Many of the Vanguard family mutual funds have been presented in the high rankings of this chart. For instance, 28 of the 66 portfolios were presented on the chart on February 2000, whereas 45 of the 186 were presented in 1999.
• "Best Fund Family" and "Best Discount Broker" awarded by Worth, which was a result of a survey among 4,000 readers. The award was given for Vanguard's high performance and high quality services.
• In 2000, Vanguard was identified as both one of the "100 Best Places to Work" by Fortune and one of the "100 Best Places to Work in IT" by Computerworld.
• "Best Fund Family" awarded by the readers of SmartMoney on November 2000.

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