Vanguard plans its first actively managed ESG fund

Managed by Wellington, the fund will include 40 companies and bow midyear.

Vanguard has created its first actively managed environmental, social and governance fund, which will be added to its current ESG offerings.

The Vanguard Global ESG Select Stock Fund will be managed by Wellington Management Co. and is expected to be available for investment by midyear.

The fund’s benchmark is the FTSE All-World Index, and to outperform it, Vanguard said that “Wellington Management will identify and select approximately 40 companies that they believe demonstrate exemplary long-standing ESG practices and have strong business fundamentals and management teams with proven track records of good capital allocation decisions for shareholders.”

(Report: From upstream to mainstream: ESG at a tipping point)

The fund is expected to be a long-term holder of those issues, resulting in low portfolio turnover, Vanguard said in a release.

Wellington also will be responsible for governance activities for the fund, enabling fund managers to integrate proxy voting and company engagements into the fund’s investment strategy, Vanguard said.

Fund expense ratios are expected to be 0.45% for Admiral share investors and 0.55% for Investor share investors. The average asset-weighted expense ratio of actively managed funds labeled as socially conscious by Morningstar is 0.69%, Vanguard said.

The fund’s managers will be Mark D. Mandel, Wellington’s vice chair and equity portfolio manager, and Yolanda C. Courtines, senior managing director and equity portfolio manager.