GBMFX looks great and M* lists it as a no-load, no minimum fund, but neither Schwab nor TDAmeritrade accept orders for it. Beyond that, one of the great granddaddies of global allocation funds is First Eagle's SGENX. Yes, it has a load but over a complete market cycle it out-performs both BBALX and GBMFX (almost 1%/year better than GBMFX and almost 2%/year better than BBALX.) I hate paying loads and do so only very rarely - but once in a while it is worth doing so. As the Blackrock fund is also loaded, the First Eagle should be considered. Warning: There have been manager changes at First Eagle in that time period.
Comments
Sorry about not picking up this thread before. Three quick notes: First, I didn't refer to SGENX in the profile because the plan was to compare BBLAX to the Gold-rated funds in its category. That, admittedly, excludes some very fine funds but I needed to keep the comparison manageable and reasonably objective because I didn't want to be guilty of cherry-picking. Second, SGENX recently lost Abhay Desphande, which is potentially major. Third, Abhay and I have exchanged notes. It appears to he's embargoed until summer but he has suggested that we might have a conversation about his next steps then.
For what all that's worth,
David
In the World Allocation space, I would take a serious look at MTOIX ($500 min in Fidelity retirement accounts + TF) and HCOYX ($100 min in Scottrade accounts + TF, $500 min in TDA retirement accounts + TF).
Kevin
Regards,
Ted
http://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/rankings/world-allocation