Vanguard SEC listings

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The SEC's EDGAR database of mutual fund filings provides a bountiful supply of historical mutual fund documents.  attempts to explain the somewhat arcane way the EDGAR database organizes and reports filings.

Vanguard mutual funds are filed and organized at the SEC in a series of fund groups. These are explained, in fund documents, as a series of trusts that contain the mutual funds. These names are likely to be unfamiliar to mutual fund investors, who have probably never heard of such entities as the Vanguard Chester funds, or the Vanguard Valley Forge funds.

While a fund researcher can now search for an individual mutual fund on the EDGAR database, researchers must realize that the fund documents are filed according to the group names. For example, a mutual fund's annual report will normally be included in one file document containing all of the annual reports of the funds in the fund group.

EDGAR uses acronym labels for common fund documents such as annual reports, prospectuses, portfolio holdings, and other reports.

Current fund documents
Vanguard provides a full variety of neatly formatted current fund documents:

Prospectuses: (includes access to prospectus, statutory prospectus, and statement of additional information) Annual Reports:
 * Mutual funds prospectuses
 * Exchange-traded funds prospectuses
 * Annuity prospectuses
 * Mutual funds annual/semiannual reports
 * Exchange-traded funds annual/semiannual reports
 * Annuities annual/semiannual reports

Vanguard fund groups A - C
Five Vanguard fund groups, arranged alphabetically, are included in the table below.

The Admiral, Charlotte, and Chester fund groups are not self explanatory. Among the Admiral group's holdings are Vanguard's suite of S & P indexed ETFs. The Charlotte Funds are comprised of Vanguard's international bond index funds, and the Chester group includes Vanguards series of target date retirement funds. (Clicking hide will reduce fund table.)

Vanguard fund groups F - I
Five more Vanguard fund groups, arranged alphabetically, are included in the table below.

The Fenway fund group (three funds) and Horizon fund group (four funds) contain Vanguard actively managed stock funds. The Fixed Income fund group consists of Vanguard's suite of actively managed bond funds. (Clicking hide will reduce fund table.)

Vanguard fund groups M - N
Five additional Vanguard fund groups, arranged alphabetically, are included in the table below.

The Malvern fund group contains two Vanguard actively managed stock funds along with the Vanguard Short-Term Inflation Protected Bond Index fund. (Clicking hide will reduce fund table.)

Vanguard fund groups O - S
Five additional Vanguard fund groups, arranged alphabetically, are included in the table below.

The Scottsdale fund group contains Vanguard's series of bond market index ETFs as well as the suite of Russell stock index ETFs. The group includes one Vanguard actively managed stock fund. The Specialized fund group includes two index funds along with Vanguard's series of actively managed sector funds. (Clicking hide will reduce fund table.)

Vanguard fund groups S - W
Five more Vanguard fund groups, arranged alphabetically.

The Star fund category contains Vanguard fund of funds such as the LifeStrategy suite of funds, and the Star fund. The fund group includes the developed market and total international stock index funds as these funds began operations as fund of funds. Trustees Equity fund group consists of three actively managed funds. Valley Forge funds group consists of Vanguard's balanced index fund and its suite of managed-payout balanced funds. Wellington funds group includes the Wellington fund and Vanguards suite of factor funds. (Clicking hide will reduce fund table.)

Vanguard fund groups W
Additional Vanguard fund groups are included in the table below.

The World funds group includes two of Vanguard's actively managed international funds, and one Vanguard US stock actively managed fund. The group also contains Vanguard's indexed sector ETFs as well as its suite of mega-cap index funds. The Whitehall funds group consists of four actively managed and one indexed stock funds. (Clicking hide will reduce fund table.)

Single fund entries
The following Vanguard SEC filings consist of single fund entries. The Montgomery funds group consists of Vanguard's market neutral stock fund.

EDGAR documents
The table below provides the SEC filing codes for important informational filings from Vanguard funds.

Annual and semi-annual reports
The fund groups' annual and semi-annual reports are filed in two sets of documents. Annual reports since 2004 are filed in N-CSR filings; semi-annual reports in N-CSRS filings. Annual and semi-annual reports beginning in 1994 and extending through 2003 are filed in N-30D filings.

Prospectus & statement of additional information reports
The fund groups' fund prospectuses and statements of additional information are combined in a single filing, the 485POS filing.

Aggregated data reports
Fund groups make annual and semiannual reporting of complete fund information in reports to the Security and Exchange Commission.

N-CEN reports
Beginning in 2018, fund companies report fund information in N-CEN reports. These reports have the advantage of providing descriptive information. The sections containing primary fund information are outlined below:


 * Part A: General Information: reporting period covered.
 * Part B: Information about the Registrant
 * B8: Directors
 * B9: Chief compliance officer
 * B16: Underwriters
 * B17: Independent public accountant
 * Part C: Additional questions
 * C1: Name of fund
 * C2: Classes of shares
 * C3: Type of fund
 * C6: Security lending
 * C8: Expense limitations
 * C9: Investment advisors
 * C10: Transfer agents
 * C11: Pricing services
 * C12: Custodians
 * C13: Shareholder servicing agents
 * C14: Administrators
 * C15: Affiliated broker dealers
 * C16: Brokers
 * C17: Principal transactions
 * C18: Payments for brokerage and research
 * C19: Average Net Assets
 * C20: Lines of credit, interfund lending and interfund borrowing
 * C21: Swing Pricing
 * Part E: Additional questions for Exchange-traded-funds
 * E1: Exchange
 * E2: Authorized Participants
 * E3: Creation Units

NSAR reports
From 1998 to 2018 fund groups made annual and semiannual reporting of complete fund information in NSAR reports. The major difficulty with NSAR filings is the fact that the data is listed without description. Deciphering the document requires having the line by line instructions handy. Among the information provided in the reports:


 * Lines 10 - 15: lists the fund Administrator, Principal Underwriter, Shareholder Servicing Agent, Independent Accountant, Affiliated Broker Dealer, and Custodian.
 * Lines 20 - 21: detailed breakdown of fund brokerage transactions and brokerage commissions.
 * Lines 42 - 54: detailed breakdown of fund 12b-1 expenses.
 * Lines 62 - 70: reports fund fixed income categories and stock market objective.
 * Line 71: reports fund turnover.
 * Line 72: reports fund income and expenses.
 * Line 73: reports payments per share.
 * Line 74: reports condensed balance sheet.
 * Line 75: reports fund average net assets.

Fund holdings
Quarterly stock and bond fund investment holdings are listed in N-Q documents. Money market funds disclose fund holdings each month in N-MFP documents.

Proxy votes
How the mutual fund voted in corporate proxies is revealed in N-PX documents.

Fund groups filing documents
The following tables provide links to the common fund data files defined above. (Click show to reveal table contents.)

Liquidated funds
The following table provides historical filings for liquidated Vanguard funds. The two real estate listings record the final two year filings for Vanguard finite-lived Real Estate Investment Trusts, which traded on the Amex Stock Exchange, and were liquidated in 1996.