If your advisor has you invested in any of these "Mutual Fund Misfires of the Market" with high fees and low returns, you need to rethink your advisor.
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.
Wasatch Frontier Emerging Small Countries Fund (WAFMX): 2.2% expense ratio and 1.65% management fee. WAFMX is a Non US - Equity fund. Many of these funds like to allocate across emerging and developed markets, and will often focus on all cap levels. With a five year after-expenses return of -0.55%, you're mostly paying more in fees than returns.
Leader Short-Term Bond Fund C (LCMCX): 2.16% expense ratio, 0.75%. LCMCX is an Investment Grade Bond - Short fund. By investing in bonds that mature in less than two years, Investment Grade Bond - Short funds are focused on the short end of the curve. This fund has yearly returns of -0.43% over the most recent five years. Another fund liable of having investors pay more in charges than what they receive in return.
Neuberger Berman Absolute Return Multi Manager C (NABCX): This fund has an expense ratio of 3.09% and management fee of 1.96%. NABCX is classified as an Allocation Balanced fund, which seeks to invest in a balance of asset types, like stocks, bonds, and cash, and including precious metals or commodities is not unusual. With an annual average return of -0.36% 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
Now that we've covered our "worst offender" list, let's take a look at some of Zacks' highest ranked mutual funds with some of the lowest fees you may want to consider.
Loomis Sayles Small Cap Growth N (LSSNX) is a winner, with an expense ratio of just 0.82% and a five-year annualized return track record of 11.63%.
AQR Large Cap Momentum Style N (AMONX): Expense ratio: 0.65%. Management fee: 0.25%. AMONX is a Large Cap Growth option; these mutual funds purchase stakes in numerous large U.S. companies that are expected to develop and grow at a faster rate than other large-cap stocks. AMONX has managed to produce a robust 10.37% over the last five years.