Vanguard Group is holding strong to its place as the largest manager of U.S. defined contribution plans, Pensions & Investments reports.
The Pennsylvania-based Vanguard grew 15% last year to $705.5 billion in U.S. institutional tax-exempt assets under management for DC plans in 2014. Fidelity Investments follows in second with $620.2 billion, up just 1.3%. BlackRock rose 10% from 2013, coming in third with $584.8 billion.
The DC market grew 2.5% to $5.35 trillion in 2014.
Vanguard and BlackRock’s double digit growth comes from the firms’ push with passive funds. Fidelity has been slow to offer passive management funds, and has seen its momentum slip in the past couple years.
Vanguard head of institutional investor group Martha King says her firm’s gains benefited from the index investing and growing interest in target date funds. The firm has also expanded its Vanguard Retirement Plan Access program, a business for plans with less than $20 million. The program has almost doubled the number of plan participants since its start in 2011.
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