Vanguard has shaken up the ranks of its subadvisors on $2.6 billion Vanguard Equity Income. The moves include the sacking of one subadvisor and an increased mandate for a second.

Wellington Management Company is the beneficiary of the changes as it takes over as lead portfolio manager for the fund. Vanguard also assigned Wellington another $520 million assets of the fund to manage as it upped its allocation to 50 percent of the fund's assets.

The loser in the moves is Newell Associates. Wellington's new stake comes out of the $1.3 billion pot of assets that had been Newell's. Vanguard is taking back the remaining $780 million of assets (30 percent of the fund) and handing it to its Quantitative Equity Group to manage.

A third subadvisor -- John A. Levin & Company -- saw its mandate remain unchanged through the changes.

Newell had been a subadvisor to the fund since its inception in 1988. It had been the sole subadvisor to the fund until 1995.

"We are grateful to Newell Associates for its contribution to the fund and its service to shareholders over the past 15 years," said Vanguard Chairman John J. Brennan in a statement. "This realignment preserves the multi-manager structure of the fund, and allows shareholders to continue to benefit from the diversity of three distinct investment approaches."

Vanguard officials said that the change stemmed from a regular reevaluation of the investment advisers by its board of trustees. Those reviews focus on style consistency and the investment process; absolute and relative long-term fund performance; and depth and composition of the management and research teams, according to Vanguard.  

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