Wellington Management Company

Wellington Management Company LLP is a large private investment management company, founded in 1928, and located in Boston (75 State Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02109, 617 951-5000, wellington.com).

According to Wellington, as of 2010 the firm has "approximately US$598 billion in client assets under management" and "serves as an investment advisor to more than 1,850 institutions located in over 50 countries." Nearly 30% of that total is represented by mutual funds that it manages for Vanguard, one of its largest clients and one with whom it has a longstanding historical connection.

John C. Bogle's connection with Wellington
John C. Bogle began working for Wellington Management immediately on graduation from Princeton, eventually becoming chairman. In his book Character Counts, he describes how, in 1966 he consummated a merger of Wellington with Thorndike, Doran, Paine and Lewis, "an aggressive equity manager." He says "I relinquished too much of the voting control of Wellington Management Company for my own good." A profile of Bogle on the American Business Hall of Fame website also alludes to and describes "difficulties dealing with the new Boston partners" leading eventually to "open hostility."

This led to Bogle's firing in the midst of a bear market on January 24, 1974, which he describes as "my four partners banded together to fire me as chief executive of Wellington Management Company." He founded Vanguard immediately thereafter, creating a "mutualized" governance structure he had originally proposed for Wellington.

Vanguard funds managed by Wellington
As of Nov. 2010, a partial list of Vanguard funds managed by Wellington includes:


 * Vanguard Capital Value Fund
 * Vanguard Dividend Growth Fund
 * Vanguard Energy Fund
 * Vanguard Equity Income Fund
 * Vanguard Explorer Fund
 * Vanguard GNMA Fund
 * Vanguard Health Care Fund
 * Vanguard High-Yield Corporate Fund
 * Vanguard International Explorer Fund
 * Vanguard Long-Term Investment-Grade Fund
 * Vanguard Morgan Growth Fund
 * Vanguard U.S. Growth Fund
 * Vanguard Wellesley Income Fund
 * Vanguard Wellington Fund
 * Vanguard Windsor Fund

Wellington also manages four subaccounts in the Vanguard Variable Annuity:
 * Vanguard VA Balanced
 * Vanguard VA Equity Income
 * Vanguard VA Growth
 * Vanguard VA High Yield Bond

Nov. 23, 2010 document request by Federal investigators
According to a November 23, 2010 Bloomberg article, Wellington is one of several firms that have received document requests in connection with federal investigations of possible insider trading by hedge funds. The article says "No allegation of wrongdoing has been made against... SAC, which manages $12 billion, or Janus and Wellington" and that "Wellington said on an internal conference call yesterday that it’s conducting a review of records, and that it didn’t engage in illegal trading,"

The article cited Vanguard spokesperson Linda Wolohan as saying that Wellington serves as an adviser to 19 Vanguard funds with about $175 billion in assets, and that “Vanguard has a longstanding relationship with Wellington and remains fully confident in and committed to that relationship and the investment-advisory services provided by the firm on behalf of our client."