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Mutual Funds

Found 28 Articles.
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Tax Secrets of Mutual Funds

May 22, 2019

Many mutual fund investors focus on the fees they pay but don’t pay enough attention to the taxes on their investment returns. Taxes are a greater drag on net investment returns than expenses and fees, according to a study by Rob Arnott of Research Affiliates. Most investors leave a lot of money on the table […]

How Investors Select Mutual Funds

August 20, 2018

The Investment Company Institute issued results from its latest annual mutual fund shareholder tracking survey. The latest report from the survey explores the factors investors consider when selecting mutual funds. Not surprisingly, most look at past performance. About 40% give a high priority to expenses. Not many consider factors such as the amount the managers […]

Knowing What Your Index Fund Invests in

May 17, 2018

Investors need to be aware of changes in the major stock indexes. Index fund investors, of course, need to know how the indexes are composed so they’ll know what’s in their portfolios and the risks they are taking. Investors in non-index, or active, funds should know what’s in the indexes, because mutual funds usually are […]

Evaluating Underperforming Mutual Funds

March 29, 2018

A key question for investors is what to do with a mutual fund that has a great long-term record but is underperforming. How long should you be patient with the fund before concluding it isn’t going to turnaround? Every great manager, even Warren Buffett, has had periods when he or she underperformed. This article discusses […]

Minimizing Taxes on Sales of Mutual Funds, Stocks

February 20, 2018

The House of Representatives’ version of the 2017 tax reform caused a panic among many tax and financial advisors, because it would have effectively increased capital gains taxes on many investors, especially retired investors. Fortunately, the change didn’t make it into the final law. Savvy investors retain some control over the amount of taxes they […]

Do Mutual Fund Manager Changes Matter?

July 26, 2017

Occasionally a change in the manager of a mutual fund makes financial headlines and influences the flow of investor dollars. A high-profile departure such as Bill Gross of PIMCO a few years ago can cause hundreds of millions of dollars, or more, to leave a fund. But there are many fund manager changes during the […]

A History of Mutual Funds

May 8, 2017

This is a republication on the web of a magazine article from 1999. It’s fairly brief, but it highlights some key points in mutual fund history in the U.S. I’ve always believed a good investor is a good historian. It’s important to take long-term perspectives such as this. Fund managers themselves are feckless forecasters. One […]

Why We Pick the Wrong Investment and Mutual Fund Managers

April 28, 2017

Maybe the reason most investment managers underperform the indexes is that investors, both individual and institutional investors, do a poor job of selecting managers. That’s the thesis of this blog post from Ben Hunt of Salient Investors. He says that most investment decisions are made by engaging in data mining first and them developing a […]

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