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.
Causeway Global Absolute Return Investor (CGAVX): Expense ratio: 1.55%. Management fee: 1.1%. After expenses, the 5 year return is -2.53%, meaning your fees are far higher than the fund's returns.
Leader Total Return Investor (LCTRX): 2.42% expense ratio, 0.75% management fee. LCTRX is an Investment Grade Bond - Intermediate fund, which targets bonds that mature in more than three years but less than 15 years, and are a middle of the curve option for investors. This fund has an annual returns of 1.18% over the last five years. Another fund guilty of having investors pay more in fees than returns.
Ascendant Deep Value Convertibles A (AEQAX) - 2.4% expense ratio, 1.15% management fee. This fund has yielded yearly returns of -0.55% in the course of the last five years. Too bad!
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.
MassMutual Select Mid Cap Growth I (MEFZX) is a winner, with an expense ratio of just 0.71% and a five-year annualized return track record of 12.99%.
Franklin International Growth Adviser (FNGZX) is a stand out fund. FNGZX is a part of the Non US - Equity fund category, many of which will focus across all cap levels, and will typically allocate their investments between emerging and developed markets. With five-year annualized performance of 10.41% and expense ratio of 0.8%, this diversified fund is an attractive buy with a strong history of performance.
Johnson Enhanced Return Fund (JENHX): Expense ratio: 0.3%. Management fee: 0.35%. JENHX 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. JENHX has produced a 11.78% over the last five years.
Bottom Line
We hope that your investment advisor (if you use one) has you invested in one or all of the top-ranked mutual funds we've reviewed. But if that is not the case, and your advisor has you invested in any of the funds on our "worst offender" list, it might be time to have a conversation or reconsider this vitally important relationship.
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Zacks Investment Research