Vanguard Group has announced that it changed the benchmark for its socially responsible fund.
Trustees of the Vanguard Calvert Social Index Fund supported adoption of the FTSE4Good US Select Index as the fund's target benchmark, Vanguard said on Wednesday. The fund will be renamed the Vanguard FTSE Social Index Fund.
The FTSE4Good Index Series was introduced in 2001 by FTSE Group, a global index provider, to measure the performance of companies that meet globally recognized corporate responsibility standards.
Vanguard's $388 million social index fund has tracked the Calvert Social Index since the portfolio was started in May 2000. The transition to the FTSE benchmark is expected to occur before yearend and will not change the fund's investment objective or strategy. Vanguard said it does not expect the change to generate capital gains distributions for shareholders or to have a material impact on the fund's 0.25% expense ratio.
