Vanguard proposed ending the $8.6 billion Asset Allocation Fund in the fall, when it told the Securities and Exchange Commission it wanted to convert a group of actively managed funds (where humans made buy-and-sell decisions) into passive indexed funds (run by algorithm).
What's in it for investors? As Vanguard noted, indexed funds charge lower fees than actively managed funds.
But that's not much compensation for the money Asset Allocation left on the table in the last few years due to its relatively poor performance, wrote Daniel P. Wiener, publisher of the Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors newsletter.
Wiener compared Asset Allocation to Vanguard's older Wellington Fund, which also mixes stocks and bonds. Wellington, managed by Wellington Management Co. since 1929, has recovered from the 2008 stock market crash and set new price highs; Asset Allocation still hasn't.
"Vanguard simply went with the better horse," Wiener concluded.
Vroom, vroom
Chris Lencheski, who joined
Comcast-Spectacor's Front Row Marketing Services unit in October after boss
Richard Sherwood retired, said Front Row had signed to represent the
Sam Schmidt Motorsports IndyCar team and would negotiate new sponsors for driver
Simon Pagenaud and Schmidt's fast Honda cars.
Lencheski, a motorsports-industry veteran who also used to own a minor-league pro hockey team in Iowa, said Schmidt hoped to challenge Roger Penske's rival team and other dominant IndyCar operators.
"Sam is having an enormous success for a young organization" in Indy-affiliated races around the world, Lencheski told me.
Front Row's job is to find companies that want to reach high-end, iPad-using, tech-savvy Indy fans. Lencheski noted that Front Row parent Comcast's NBC networks televise Indy races. "That helps us," he added.
