How to choose a mutual fund
Key Points
- Assess Your Investment Objectives
- Match Your Goals With Funds' Investment Objectives
- Equity Fund Categories
- The Hunt for Top Performers
- Fixed-Income Fund Categories
- Buy Directly From the Funds
- Points to remember
Choosing mutual fund investments from the thousands of fund offerings available can be daunting. With so many different categories of funds and fund families, it may make sense to work with your financial advisor. Here are some steps experts recommend you consider when selecting investments.
Assess Your Investment Objectives
When you set out to select a fund, your first task is to formulate your investment objectives and identify your time frame. For example, you may plan to buy a new house in three years, to invest for your children's college education in 15 years, or to fund your retirement in 30 years.
Generally speaking, the longer your time horizon, the greater your tolerance for risk. If you have an investment time frame of more than 10 years, you may take a higher degree of risk and position yourself for higher earning potential over the long term by investing more aggressively in growth-oriented stocks. On the other hand, if you know that you will need the money in less than five years, you may allocate your portfolio towards more conservative, income-producing securities such as high-dividend stocks or short-term bonds.1
Match Your Goals With Funds' Investment Objectives
The next step is to identify which types of mutual funds match your investment goals and risk tolerance. With the thousands of mutual funds now available, you certainly have plenty of options to choose from, whatever your goals are. But don't be confused by the seemingly endless differentiation of the mutual fund industry, which can be boiled down into a few large groups. In terms of investment objectives, stock funds, for example, include "aggressive growth," "growth," and "growth and income" depending on the kinds of securities they hold. Each group of funds can further be categorized by risk level, as "above-average risk," "average risk," or "below-average risk."
A number of information sources, such as Standard & Poor's, Morningstar, Lipper Analytical Services, and Value Line (available online and at most local libraries), can help you understand mutual fund investment objectives and risk levels. Standard & Poor's, for instance, arranges U.S. stock funds into five major groups, providing for each fund investment style, performance and risk analysis, and an overall risk-adjusted rating in relation to other funds in the same category.
Once you have identified the fund categories that seem appropriate to your investment objectives, you will want to take a close look at individual funds in each of the categories. Performance over a period of time is usually an important factor, but not the only consideration. Other factors may include the consistency of fund management, investment policies, and variability in returns over time.
In addition to published sources of mutual fund comparisons from Standard & Poor's, Lipper Analytical Services, and personal finance magazines, you will also want to read the material available from the fund company you are interested in. Most important, you'll need to review the prospectus, which is available free by contacting the fund provider. Fund contact information is available through major financial publication Web sites including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Yahoo!
A fund's prospectus describes the fund's investment objective, types of securities it invests in, and the risks these investments involve. The prospectus is intended to help you to understand exactly what you are investing in. A prospectus of an aggressive growth fund may tell you, for example, that the fund invests in small and often volatile stocks, that it could use products such as derivatives to hedge or to maximize investment returns, and that the fund involves above-average risk.
Equity Fund Categories
| Fund Category | Risk |
|---|---|
| Domestic Equity | |
| Aggressive Growth | High |
| Equity Income | Medium |
| Growth | Medium |
| Growth and Income | Medium |
| Small Company | High |
| Industry Sector | High |
| International Equity | |
| Diversified Emerging Markets | High |
| Foreign Stock | High |
| World Stock | High |
The Hunt for Top Performers
Fund prospectuses also tell you the funds' performance, fees and expenses, and other information that investors should have when looking for mutual funds. Performance over the time frame that you are investing for, with an appropriate level of risk, is the bottom line. So, when you hunt for top-performing funds, don't focus on the funds' latest performance only.
A common mistake of picking funds is buying the latest "hot" fund. But be aware that buying a fund based solely on its latest performance can be very risky; only 39% of all domestic equity funds managed to beat their benchmark during a recent five-year period.2
Instead, look for funds that consistently provide above-average investment returns in the same fund category for the past three, five, and 10 years. Lower volatility is evidenced by funds that are ahead of their peers during bull markets, while not falling more than the averages in bear markets.
Compare the annual percentage returns of a fund with its major benchmark index over the same period. For example, compare the performance of diversified stock funds with the S&P 500 stock index, or bond funds with Lehman Brothers bond indexes. Mutual fund performance benchmarks, which average the investment returns of similar funds, are published each quarter in major financial publications or are available through their Web sites.
Fixed-Income Fund Categories
| Fund Category | Risk Level |
| Government Bonds | |
| Treasury | Medium |
| Mortgage-Backed | High |
| Corporate Bonds | |
| High Quality | Medium |
| High Yield | High |
| World Income | High |
| Municipal Bonds | |
| General Obligation | Medium |
| Single State | Medium |
Fees and expenses that funds charge investors vary widely from one fund to another. Some funds impose a sales charge (front-load) when you buy shares; others impose an exit fee (back-load) if you sell shares before a specified period of time. There is also a large number of no-load funds available. In many cases, you may be better off to work with a broker or investment representative and pay a sales load; however, if you are working with a qualified financial planner, he or she will be able to help you select appropriate no-load funds for your portfolio. In general, there may not be a significant difference between load and no-load funds in terms of performance. For a truly superior fund, however, it might be worthwhile to pay a load, particularly if you plan to stay with the fund for a long period of time. In addition to sales charges, mutual funds charge various management fees. Everything else being equal, lower total fees and expenses result in higher returns.
Buy Directly From the Funds
You can buy mutual fund shares through a broker or directly from a mutual fund company. To buy funds through a broker, you normally have to pay a commission. You can usually avoid paying a commission if you buy a no-load fund directly from a fund company.
Finally, first-time mutual fund investors are often advised to start small, and all investors can practice diversification to lower risk.3
Points to Remember
- In choosing mutual funds, your first task is to formulate your investment objectives and identify your time frame.
- The next step is to identify which types of mutual funds match your investment goals and risk tolerance.
- Companies such as Standard & Poor's and Lipper Analytical Services provide statistical information on mutual funds.
- Once you have identified the fund categories that seem appropriate to your investment objectives, you will want to take a close look at individual funds in each of the categories.
- A fund's prospectuses describe the fund's investment objective, types of securities it invests in, and the risks these investments involve.
1These allocations are presented only as examples and are not intended as investment advice. Please consult a financial advisor if you have questions about these examples and how they relate to your own financial situation. The investor profile is hypothetical.
2Source: Standard & Poor's, 2007. For the five-year period ending March 31, 2007. Based on annual returns of Standard & Poor's Composite 1500, an unmanaged index that is generally considered indicative of the U.S. stock market. Equity fund performance is represented by the total returns of the funds tracked by Standard & Poor's. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
3 Diversification helps you spread risk throughout your portfolio, so that investments that do poorly may be balanced by others that do relatively better. Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against loss.
Investment products are not federally or FDIC-insured, are not deposits or obligations of, or guaranteed by any financial institution, and involve investment risks including possible loss of principal and fluctuation in value.
You should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of a mutual fund carefully before investing. For a free prospectus, which contains this and other important information about the funds, contact your financial advisor or visit ameriprise.com. Read the prospectus carefully before investing.
Investments, brokerage and investment advisory services offered through Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., Member FINRA and SIPC.