Vanguard Group has buried a 24-year attempt to pay humans to outguess securities markets.

Malvern-based Vanguard's Asset Allocation Fund, founded in 1988 (after a steep but temporary stock market blow-up weakened some investors' confidence in rigid index funds) allowed hired managers at Mellon Capital to move clients' money back and forth between S&P 500 stocks, US Treasuries and money-market funds. On Friday it was folded into Vanguard's Balanced Index fund (60%/40%, stocks/bonds).

Vanguard originally proposed the switch to the SEC last fall, and noted that investors will pay slightly lower fees as a result: The $11.1 billion Balanced Index, with its fixed stocks/bonds ratio, doesn't try to time the market; investors who let Vanguard make the switch are now on autopilot. like other index investors.

But that's not much compensation for the money Asset Allocation left on the table in the past few years due to its relatively poor performance, writes Daniel P. Wiener, publisher of the Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors newsletter:

Asset Allocation share values have yet to fully recover from the 2007-08 stock market collapse. That makes for a lame comparison to the much older Vanguard Wellington Fund, which also mixes stocks and bonds. Wellington also slipped in the crash, but recovered more quickly, and has lately been back at record highs.

Since 1988, "for every $100 that Asset Allocation turned into $691, Wellington was able to turn ($100) into $864," Weiner concludes. "Vanguard simply went with the better horse."