Vanguard Group announced an aggressive strategy to expand its index fund family.
The Valley Forge, Pa., mutual fund giant plans to introduce 19 exchange-traded funds in an effort to offer a wider array of low-cost stock and bond options. The firm will also launch ETF shares of its flagship Vanguard 500 Index Fund.
Vanguard said Friday that its new ETFs will be less expensive than comparable products offered by competitors.
The company said that in the next year, the new funds will broaden its equity lineup by tracking benchmarks from a wider range of providers, such as FTSE, MSCI, Russell, and S&P. Vanguard also plans to add indexed municipal products to its fixed-income stable and introduce an international real estate fund and ETF.
Vanguard, which introduced the Vanguard 500 Index Fund in 1976 and its first ETF in 2001, has $1.4 trillion in mutual fund assets under management, including nearly $100 billion in ETF assets.
