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.
High fees plus poor performance: It's a pretty simple formula for a bad mutual fund. Some are worse than others - and some are so bad that they have earned a "Strong Sell" on the Zacks Rank, the lowest ranking of the nearly 19,000 mutual funds we rank daily.
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.
Catalyst MLP & Infrastructure I (MLXIX): 1.43% expense ratio and 1.25% management fee. MLXIX is a Sector - Energy fund, which are comprised of various changing and hugely important industries throughout the massive global energy sector. With a five year after-expenses return of -6.68%, you're mostly paying more in fees than returns.
Transamerica Small Cap Core C (SCCCX): SCCCX is a Small Cap Value mutual fund, investing in small companies with stock market valuation less than $2 billion. SCCCX offers an expense ratio of 1.98% and annual returns of 1.54% over the last five years. Even if this fund can be positioned as a hedge during the recent bull-market, paying more in fees than returns over the long-term should never be an acceptable result.
AQR Equity Market Neutral I (QMNIX): This fund has an expense ratio of 1.27% and management fee of 1.1%. QMNIX is a Market Neutral - Equity mutual fund. These portfolios usually hold 50% of their securities in a long position, as well as 50% in a short position. With an annual average return of 0.62% 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.
Brown Advisory Flexible Equity Institutional (BAFFX) is a winner, with an expense ratio of just 0.57% and a five-year annualized return track record of 11.66%.
MassMutual Premier Disciplined Growth Admiral (MPGLX) has an expense ratio of 0.85% and management fee of 0.45%. MPGLX 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. With annual returns of 12.62% over the last five years, this is a well-diversified fund with a long track record of success.
JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) Mid Cap Growth Fund R5 (JMGFX): Expense ratio: 0.78%. Management fee: 0.65%. JMGFX is a Mid Cap Growth mutual fund. These mutual funds choose companies with a stock market valuation between $2 billion and $10 billion. JMGFX has produced a 12.2% over the last five years.
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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Zacks Investment Research