Vanguard Lowers Minimums

Vanguard said in mid-May that it would reduce the minimum investment requirement from $3,000 to $1,000 for the 12 funds in its index-based Target Retirement Fund series. “Investing early and investing regularly are two of the most important things investors can do to help ensure their retirement readiness. By reducing the investment requirements on our target-date funds, we hope to encourage more individuals to participate in the financial markets,” said Vanguard CEO Bill McNabb, in a press release.

According to the fund giant, the Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 Fund provides investors with a portfolio of nearly 15,000 domestic and international securities represented by three broad-based index funds: Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund, Vanguard Total Bond Market II Index Fund, and Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund. Vanguard’s Target Retirement Funds feature weighted expense ratios ranging from 0.16 percent to 0.19 percent. Introduced in 2003, Vanguard Target Retirement Funds now have aggregate assets of nearly $88 billion and have had $41 billion in target-date fund cash flow over the past three years.