Is Fidelity Magellan, the fund made famous by Peter Lynch, about to be surpassed in its own family? It could happen.

Final second quarter numbers show that Magellan slipped during the March to June quarter while Contrafund continued to build assets. If the lead change does take place, it would reflect a new era at the Boston Behemoth as the fund, which was once the nation's largest, falls behind in its own shop.

For more than a decade, Magellan has been Fidelity's flagship fund in the 401(k) market. That has been slowly changing, though, and the numbers reflect the shift in fundamentals. Magellan has long been closed to new investors, leaving the fund dependent on investment gains for growth. In addition, 401(k) clients are moving away from plans dependent on core fund options to plans offering asset allocations and managed portfolios. Those changes are decreasing the importance of a brand like Magellan's in that market.

All of that makes it less of a surprise that Magellan is losing assets. So far in 2005 the fund shrank by $8.4 billion to $54.9 billion in assets (the fund peaked at more than $100 billion in 2000).

Meanwhile, Contrafund has added nearly $5 billion in assets since the start of the year and now stands at $49.4 billion in assets.

At that pace the gap is narrowing, assets Contrafund would surpass those in Magellan sometime this quarter. 

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