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Mutual Fund Misfires of the Market - April 02, 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.

How can you tell a good mutual fund from a bad one? It's pretty basic: If the fund has high fees and performs poorly, it's not good. Of course, there's a range - but when a mutual fund earns a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell) that means it's among the worst of roughly 19,000 funds we rate each day.

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.

First Investor International Opportunities Bond Adviser : 1.08% expense ratio and 0.75% management fee. FIODX is an International Bond - Developed fund, and these funds funds focus on fixed income securities from developed nations apart from the United States. This usually results in countries like Japan, Germany, the UK, France, and Australia dominating the list of top holdings. With a five year after-expenses return of -0.45%, you're mostly paying more in fees than returns.

Brandes International Small Cap Equity C (BINCX - Free Report) : 2.1% expense ratio, 0.95% management fee. BINCX is a Non US - Equity option, focusing their investments acoss emerging and developed markets, and can often extend across cap levels too. This fund has an annual returns of 1.2% over the last five years. Another fund guilty of having investors pay more in fees than returns.

Touchstone Ultra Short Duration Fixed Income C (TSDCX - Free Report) : Expense ratio: 1.19%. Management fee: 0.25%. TSDCX is a Government Bond - Short fund, and these funds hold securities issued by the U.S. federal government. This category focuses on the short end of the curve, and are seen as extremely low risk securities from a default perspective. With annual returns of just -0.19%, it's no surprise this fund has received Zacks' "Strong Sell" ranking.

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.

Fidelity Strategic Advisers Growth Fund : Expense ratio: 0.11%. Management fee: 0.36%. FSGFX is a Large Cap Growth mutual fund, and these funds invest in many large U.S. firms that are projected to grow at a faster rate than their large-cap peers. This fund has achieved five-year annual returns of an astounding 12.66%.

Neuberger Berman Mid Cap Growth R6 (NRMGX - Free Report) is a stand out fund. NRMGX is a Mid Cap Growth mutual fund. These mutual funds choose companies with a stock market valuation between $2 billion and $10 billion. With five-year annualized performance of 11.12% and expense ratio of 0.61%, this diversified fund is an attractive buy with a strong history of performance.

Manning & Napier Disciplined Value S (MDFSX - Free Report) has an expense ratio of 0.82% and management fee of 0.3%. MDFSX is a Large Cap Value fund. These funds invest in stocks with a market cap of $10 billion of more, but whose share prices do not reflect their intrinsic value. With yearly returns of 10.7% over the last five years, this fund is well-diversified with a long reputation of salutary performance.

Bottom Line

Along these lines, there you have it - if your financial guide has you put your money into any of our "Mutual Fund Misfires of the Market," there is a strong likelihood that they are either dormant at the worst possible time, inept, or (in all probability) filling their pockets with high fee commissions at the cost of your financial objectives.

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