Does Your Retirement Portfolio Hold These 3 Mutual Fund Misfires? - January 10, 2020

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.

First, let's break down some of the funds currently part of our "Mutual Fund Misfires of the Market." If you happen to have put your money into any of these misfires, we'll help assess some of our best Zacks Ranked mutual funds.

3 Mutual Fund Misfires

Now, let's take a look at three market misfires.

Hotchkis and Wiley Mid-Cap Value A (HWMAX): Expense ratio: 1.25%. Management fee: 0.75%. After expenses, the 5 year return is -1.23%, meaning your fees are far higher than the fund's returns.

Wells Fargo Short Duration Government A (MSDAX): MSDAX is part of the Government Bond - Short fund category. Often seen as risk-free assets, these funds hold securities issued by the U.S. federal government and they focus on the short end of the curve. MSDAX offers an expense ratio of 0.8% and annual returns of 0.64% 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.

Columbia Disciplined Small Core A (LSMAX) - 1.35% expense ratio, 0.85% management fee. This fund has yielded yearly returns of 0.66% 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.

Hartford Core Equity R4 (HGISX): 0.76% expense ratio and 0.35% management fee. HGISX is part of the Large Cap Blend section, and these mutual funds most often invest in firms with a market capitalization of $10 billion or more. By investing in bigger companies, these funds offer more stability, and are often well-suited for investors with a "buy and hold" mindset. With an annual return of 11.96% over the last five years, this fund is a winner.

JPMorgan Intrepid Growth I (JPGSX) has an expense ratio of 0.59% and management fee of 0.3%. JPGSX 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. Thanks to yearly returns of 11.23% over the last five years, JPGSX is an effectively diversified fund with a long reputation of solidly positive performance.

T. Rowe Price Diversified Mid Cap Growth (PRDMX) has an expense ratio of 0.8% and management fee of 0.64%. PRDMX is a Mid Cap Growth mutual fund. These funds aim to target companies with a market capitalization between $2 billion and $10 billion that are also expected to exhibit more extensive growth opportunities for investors than their peers. With yearly returns of 11.43% over the last five years, this fund is well-diversified with a long reputation of salutary performance.

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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