What are the world’s biggest investment funds? Chances are that you’ll be able to guess that they’re mostly passive funds, and that a Vanguard fund sits at the top of the table ahead of State Street and BlackRock’s flagship S&P 500 index funds. After all, thanks to their sprawling, fast-growing index fund franchises, BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street are often referred to as the investment industry’s “Big Three”.
As Oliver Wyman’s Huw van Steenis told FTAV: Thanks to Fidelity’s immense distribution network it is growing fast. Just over a year ago, when FTAV first highlighted the Fidelity 500 fund’s growth, it managed $388bn. A decade ago it managed just $75bn, which meant it wasn’t even in the top 10 and well behind Danoff’s then-$106bn Contrafund. Two decades ago it was an $18bn gnat, while Fidelity at the time had four of its classic stockpicking mutual funds in the top-20.