America has a new leader guiding its 401(k) to its comfortable retirement target, and the epicenter of that action is in Malvern.

The headquarters of Vanguard has steered the investment giant to $613 billion in assets, just enough to overtake Fidelity as the nation’s biggest manager of defined-contribution account assets, Businessweek recently heralded.

Riding a wave of popularity in its low-cost and passive automatic investment programs, Vanguard posted 28 percent growth in assets last year, dwarfing Fidelity’s 17 percent growth rate to achieve a milestone that Businessweek called “a changing of the guard,” as Fidelity had held the top spot since 1998.

“People who sponsor retirement plans are finding low-cost index funds a compelling value, and that has been a boon for us,” Managing Director Chris McIsaac said in the article.

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Top image courtesy of www.financenews24.com