A fund industry era has come to an end. Sometime during the past month Fidelity's Magellan Fund became the second largest fund offered by the Boston Behemoth.

The passage was revealed in Fidelity's most recent monthly report to investors that lists Magellan with $52.5 billion, more than $3 billion short of the $55.7 billion held in Fidelity's Contrafund.

While the change in rankings has no material effect on Fidelity's business and does not come as a surprise (Magellan has been closed to new investors since 1997), it does mark a changing of the guard.

Magellan was the fund that Fidelity rode to prominence under fund manager Peter Lynch during the stock boom of the 1980s. Established as Fidelity's leading fund by the time of Lynch's resignation in 1990, the fund became a mainstay among the firm's 401(k) clients in the 1990s. It was during the 1990s that Fidelity grew into the largest 401(k) asset manager.

It was the growth of that business that many blamed for a "tamed" team of Fidelity fund managers since the end of that decade. Some fund watchers believe that Magellan itself became a closet index fund over that period, a contention that Fidelity portfolio managers have denied.

Meanwhile, under stock picker Will Danoff, ContraFund has been one of Fidelity's top performers aver the past decade. Danoff has also dodged any accusation that he is a closet indexer as the fund has ballooned in size. Currently, he largest holding is cash and 15 percent of the fund is invested overseas. 

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