Vanguard Group Mutual Funds
The Vanguard Group Mutual Funds was created in 1975 with a different approach than what most investment firms took in the establishment of their investment brokerage firms. This approach was devised by an undergraduate at Princeton named John Bogle. He recognized that most mutual funds of the time did no better or worse than if a person would equally invest in all of the fortune 500 companies at once.
This was the basis of the first of many Vanguard Funds which used the S&P 500 as a benchmark for investing in groups of companies. At first this company that Bogle founded was a typical brokerage type firm but that was quickly changed. The change came in the form of a no-load type fund investment.
Today there are over 500 different mutual funds for investors to place their money in with Vanguard. The types of mutual funds vary from aggressive growth funds which concentrate on stock to conservative investments that are considered value funds that are mostly invested in bonds.
Since their introduction in the last decade the ETF’s have also become a part of the Vanguard family of investment. These are unlike most other types of investment since they take a very active account manager to stay on top of the action involving this type of investment. Even with that level of involvement the low cost reputation of Vanguard has been maintained.
Since its inception, the Vanguard investment firm has grown to become one of the top three mutual fund firms in the nation. There assets are greater than $1.4 trillion in 2010 and have over 12,000 employees working to do the best possible job for their clients.
The Vanguard Group Mutual Funds is from a firm that is only 35 years old, but has weathered the economic storms that have confronted it and have show they are a solid firm to invest with.