Vanguard Faces the Future.

Because it didn't have to worry about funneling customer cash to owners, Vanguard chipped away at its expense ratio so that today its investors pay an average fee of just 0.08%, or a 12th of a penny for every dollar invested. "No one comes close to Vanguard" for affordable, well-managed active funds, says Jeff DeMaso, editor of The Independent Vanguard Adviser newsletter. In its 48-year history, Vanguard deployed its squeaky-clean reputation and rock-bottom money management fees to attract more than one out of every four dollars invested in funds - approximately $7.6 trillion - blowing past longer-established fund companies. Even last year, as investors pulled a combined $370 billion out of funds overall, Vanguard bucked the trend and netted nearly $83 billion in inflows, according to data from fund-tracker Morningstar. [Extracted from the article]