I'm new to the forum but I have noticed the theme of Vanguard as the preferred fund company because they are the low cost leader. And I've seen several threads where people have been given advice to move theirs funds because Vanguard will save them money. A few years ago I analyzed my portfolio to see if I should switch to low cost index funds and decided to stay put. After hanging out on this site I decided to revisit the issue and did another comparison. I went to morningstar.com and looked at the growth of a 10k investment in my fund over a 10 year period vs. that of the comparable Vanguard fund.
gfafx 20,716.42 vs. vlacx 18,291.03
shsax 32,184.71 vs vhcix 23,168.68
kdsax 23,611.96 vs visvx 23,541.52
sgenx 25,692.15 vs vhgex 20,035.13
tahyx 19,607.22 vs vwehx 19,637.24
ekgax 25,898.70 vs vhgex 20,035.13
Totals: 147,711.16 vs 124,708.73
I was able to buy these funds on a load waived basis through my 401k but these morningstar numbers include the load. And I will probably pay tons of extra money in fees over the years compared to the Vanguard funds. But my goal is to accumulate the most money possible from my investments and for me that means staying put once again.
I do NOT think that Vanguard is a bad fund company, they are great. And I'm NOT saying this as an endorsement for active funds vs. index funds. But I am saying that if you already have a portfolio built, do your homework before you sell off your portfolio to move to Vanguard because they have lower fees.