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3 Mutual Fund Misfires To Avoid In Your Retirement Portfolio - February 10, 2020

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If your financial advisor made you buy any of these "Mutual Fund Misfires of the Market" with high expenses and low returns, you need to reassess your advisor.

The easiest way to judge a mutual fund's quality over time is by analyzing its performance and fees. Our Zacks Rank of over 19,000 mutual funds has identified some of the worst of the worst mutual funds you should avoid, the funds with the highest fees and poorest long-term performance.

First, let's break down some of the funds currently part of our "Mutual Fund Misfires of the Market." If you happen to have put your money into any of these misfires, we'll help assess some of our best Zacks Ranked mutual funds.

3 Mutual Fund Misfires

Now, let's take a look at three market misfires.

Timothy Plan Defensive Strategy C (TPDCX - Free Report) : 2.16% expense ratio and 0.6% management fee. TPDCX is classified as an Allocation Balanced fund, which seeks to invest in a balance of asset types, like stocks, bonds, and cash, and including precious metals or commodities is not unusual. With a five year after-expenses return of 1.24%, you're mostly paying more in fees than returns.

ProFunds Oil Equipment Service Class & Distribution Investor (OEPIX - Free Report) . Expense ratio: 2.09%. Management fee: 0.6%. Over the last 5 years, this fund has generated annual returns of -24.81%.

NYSA Fund - 4.01% expense ratio, 1% management fee. This fund has yielded yearly returns of -0.85% in the course of the last five years. Too bad!

3 Top Ranked Mutual Funds

Now that we've covered our "worst offender" list, let's take a look at some of Zacks' highest ranked mutual funds with some of the lowest fees you may want to consider.

Diamond Hill Large Cap Fund Y (DHLYX - Free Report) is a fund that has an expense ratio of 0.55%, and a management fee of 0.5%. DHLYX is a Large Cap Blend fund, targeting companies with market caps of over $10 billion. These funds offer investors a stability, and are perfect for people with a "buy and hold" mindset. With yearly returns of 11.55% over the last five years, this fund clearly wins.

Principal Blue Chip Fund A (PBLAX - Free Report) : Expense ratio: 1%. Management fee: 0.66%. PBLAX is a part of the Large Cap Growth mutual fund category, which invest in many large U.S. companies that are expected to grow much faster compared to other large-cap stocks. PBLAX has managed to produce a robust 14.4% over the last five years.

American Funds Wash Mutl Invs R2E (RWEBX - Free Report) has an expense ratio of 1.09% and management fee of 0.23%. RWEBX is a Large Cap Value mutual fund, which invests in stocks with a market cap of $10 billion of more, but whose share prices do not reflect their intrinsic value. With annual returns of 10.11% over the last five years, this fund is a well-diversified fund with a long track record of success.

Bottom Line

So, there you have it - if your advisor has you invested in any of our "Mutual Fund Misfires of the Market," there is a good probability that they are either asleep at the wheel, incompetent, or (most likely) lining their pockets with high fee commissions at your financial expense.

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