Vanguard Group in Malvern, Pa., said Wednesday that it is broadening its lineup of Target Retirement Funds with five portfolios intended to let investors select a fund more closely matching their expected retirement dates.
The mutual fund giant said it now offers 11 options for investors seeking low-cost, well-diversified investment programs in a single fund.
Vanguard Target Retirement Funds are broadly diversified funds-of-funds for investors of all ages. They invest primarily in stock and bond index funds and gradually shift to more conservative asset allocations as the retirement target date approaches.
The funds require a minimum initial investment of $3,000 and feature weighted expense ratios of 0.20% and 0.21%, compared with the 1.16% expense ratio of the average balanced fund in a March report by Lipper Inc.
With more than $180 billion of assets, according to Lipper, target-date funds have become an increasingly popular choice among individual investors and retirement plan participants.
Vanguard Group is the nation's second-largest mutual fund company; it managed nearly $990 billion of U.S. mutual fund assets at May 31, including more than $275 billion in employer-sponsored retirement plans.
