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3 Mutual Fund Misfires To Avoid In Your Retirement Portfolio - March 11, 2020

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If your advisor has you invested in any of these "Mutual Fund Misfires of the Market" with high fees and low returns, you need to rethink 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.

Below, you'll read about some of the funds included in our current list of "Mutual Fund Misfires of the Market." And if by chance you're invested in any of these misfires, we'll help and review some of our highest Zacks Ranked mutual funds.

3 Mutual Fund Misfires

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

Hartford World Bond C (HWDCX - Free Report) : Expense ratio: 1.75%. Management fee: 0.59%. After expenses, the 5 year return is 1.42%, meaning your fees are far higher than the fund's returns.

PSI Tactical Growth Fund A : 1.9% expense ratio, 1% management fee. FXTAX 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. This fund has an annual returns of -0.35% over the last five years. Another fund guilty of having investors pay more in fees than returns.

Snow Capital Small Cap Value A (SNWAX - Free Report) : This fund has an expense ratio of 1.5% and management fee of 0.95%. SNWAX is a Small Cap Value mutual fund option, which typically invest in companies with market caps under $2 billion. With an annual average return of -0.88% over the last five years, the only thing absolute about this absolute return fund is that it absolutely deserves to be on our "worst offender" list.

3 Top Ranked Mutual Funds

Since you've seen the most noticeably lowest Zacks Ranked mutual funds, how about we take a look at some of the top ranked mutual funds with the least fees.

Fidelity Advisor Stock Select Allocation Cap Z (FZAPX - Free Report) is a winner, with an expense ratio of just 0.56% and a five-year annualized return track record of 10.75%.

MFS Global New Discovery R6 (GLNNX - Free Report) : Expense ratio: 1.16%. Management fee: 0.98%. GLNNX is a Global - Equity mutual fund investing in bigger markets like the U.S., Europe, and Japan; these kinds of funds aren't limited by geography. GLNNX has managed to produce a robust 11.3% over the last five years.

Columbia Select Large Cap Equity Fund R5 (CLCRX - Free Report) has an expense ratio of 0.47% and management fee of 0.76%. CLCRX 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 11.69% over the last five years, this fund is well-diversified with a long reputation of salutary performance.

Bottom Line

These examples underscore the huge range in quality of mutual funds - from the really bad to the astonishingly good. There is no reason for your advisor to keep your money in any fund that charges more than you get in return (unless they're getting something out of it, like a high commission).

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