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Are You Invested In These 3 Mutual Fund Misfires? - March 23, 2020

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You may need to start looking for a new financial advisor if your current one has put any of these high-fee, low-return "Mutual Fund Misfires of the Market" into your portfolio.

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.

Touchstone Ultra Short Duration Fixed Income I (TSDIX - Free Report) : 0.39% expense ratio and 0.25% management fee. TSDIX is a Government Bond - Short fund option. These funds hold securities issued by the U.S. federal government in their portfolios, and focus on the short end of the curve, which results in lower yields. With a five year after-costs return of -0.21%, you're for the most part paying more in charges than returns.

AQR Multi Strategy Alternative R6 . Expense ratio: 1.87%. Management fee: 0.25%. Over the last 5 years, this fund has generated annual returns of -2.57%.

Invesco Long/Short Equity R6 - 1.17% expense ratio, 0.8% management fee. LSQSX is a Long Short - Equity mutual fund, which look at taking long positions in equities that are expected to appreciate and short positions in equities that are projected to decline, but overall, hope to minimize their market exposure. LSQSX has generated annual returns of 0.42% over the last five years. Ouch!

3 Top Ranked Mutual Funds

Now that you've seen the worst Zacks Ranked mutual funds, let's have a look at some of the highest ranked funds with the lowest fees.

AQR Large Cap Defensive Style R6 (QUERX - Free Report) is a winner, with an expense ratio of just 0.3% and a five-year annualized return track record of 13.51%.

Brown Advisory Flexible Equity Institutional (BAFFX - Free Report) is a stand out fund. BAFFX is a part of the Allocation Balanced fund category; these funds like to invest in a variety of asset types, finding a balance between stocks, bonds, cash, and sometimes even precious metals and commodities; they are mostly categorized by their respective asset allocation. With five-year annualized performance of 11.66% and expense ratio of 0.57%, this diversified fund is an attractive buy with a strong history of performance.

MFS New Discovery R6 (MNDKX - Free Report) : Expense ratio: 0.95%. Management fee: 0.88%. MNDKX is one of many Small Cap Growth mutual funds; these funds tend to create their portfolios around stocks with market capitalization of less than $2 billion. MNDKX has produced a 13.56% over the last five years.

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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