Massive increases in economies of scale and improvements in technology have enabled passive money managers to continually lower fees. Mutual fund fees for S&P 500 strategies have seen continually lower fees over the past 40 years. In 1976, Vanguard's S&P 500 mutual fund charged 43 basis points. As institutional share classes were created, fees dropped substantially. In 1990, its institutional share class was introduced with a fee of nine basis points. Vanguard now offers 500 Index Fund Institutional Select Shares (VFFSX) for one basis point. The share class has a large minimum investment of $5 billion. As of April 30, all Vanguard mutual fund share classes had $429.8 billion of assets.
