A query on American Funds

bee

This fund company seems to take the flavor vanilla and slice it 12 ways to Sunday.

A mere one fund is offered also as:



I compared AMCPX and RAFGX. RAFGX is a R6 shares class has a low minimum (as they all do) and an ER that is half the A share class (AMCPX). AMCPX also comes with a 5% load.

How do investors make a choice between all these flavors?

I'm looking for a brokerage platforms that offer the cheapest share class of American Funds that offers these shares NTF (No Transaction Fee). R6 share (in this case RAFGX) seem to be the cheapest through my brokerage, but I have to cough up the transaction fee.

Soupkitchen

Bee, I imagine that you would probably have to pay an adviser to have access to the cheapest share class. One way of getting in cheaper would be to buy the short term bond fund (2.5% load), and then transfer your shares over to the fund that you want. Those would still be A shares at Fidelity, but at least the load would be lower.

Desota

The R class is for 401k plans. The F2 is only available through advisors charging a wrap fee. A shares are your best bet but would be a waste at fidelity as you are paying a 12b1 fee which goes to an FA. I hold A shares through EJ.

msf

I agree with Desota - I would be quite surprised if you could get an R-class share outside of an employer-sponsored retirement plan.

When American Funds came out with class F shares (now called F-1), they were available not only through advisors, but through some offbeat discount brokers (e.g. Citicorp Investment Services - doesn't exist any more). Later, when American Funds added F-2 (same as F-1 but w/o 12b-1 fee), they seemed to tighten up on access to the F-1 shares.

Nevertheless, there appear to be a few access points remaining. I don't know how useful any of this will be, but here's what I know about those access points.

Several HSA (Health Savings Accounts) offer access to a limited number of mutual funds (i.e. they have a menu, like an employer's 401(k) plan does). Among these offerings one can often find one or two American Funds (class F-1). For example, here's the fund list from HSA Bank.

Some HSAs offer brokerage options, and these tend to be treated as retirement accounts or institutional accounts, rather than generic retail accounts. As such, they seem to offer greater access to some investments. Many of these HSA accounts use TDAmeritrade as the brokerage partner, and it looks like AMPFX (AMCAP F-1) may be available that way, NTF, despite a search on the brokerage site turning up a page saying the fund is not available for sale there.

Another back door is via a no load VA. What you get there are usually clones of the retail funds, but that's often close enough. You can access the American Funds Insurance Series VA funds through Jefferson National Monument Advisor VA. There isn't a clone for AMCAP, but there is one for Growth Fund of America.

Finally, there's the solution for the high rollers - dump $1M into American Funds, and you can get their A shares without a load. (Though there's a 1% redemption fee if you sell within a year.) If you're investing that much, you're probably not worrying about whether there's a transaction fee.

hank

Class F? Who the f is running their marketing department?

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

bee

You all are reconfirming for me why I have no holdings with this fund family. Their fund structure seems full of marketing costs to what otherwise are low cost funds.

Thanks to everyone who commented.

rforno

I've held several AF's since 2006 and been very pleased with them. They're fairly straight-shooters as a company and I have no qualms with them other than the A-class loads[1] and how many share classes they've sliced themselves into. I also hold some very low-cost R-6 funds of theirs in my university 403(b)....no problems there, either.

[1] Advisor put me into several of them as part of a 70-30 split as we redid the portfolio that year w/a new firm. I put 70% into individual equities, he put 30% into funds. Knowing what I know now, and with performance aside, I'm not sure I would pay the loads myself, nowdays, however.

BobC

Like other great sales organizations, American Funds has made sure there is a product to fit every imaginable opportunity. Different combinations of front, back, and ongoing commissions; different ERs; 12b-1s and no 12b-1s. Crazy, you say? American is laughing all the way to the bank.

Sven

The lowest cost American funds are the "R" class that are available in 401(k) and 403(b). Otherwise they are set up for advisors, not generally no-load mutual funds for small retail investors. There is nothing magical about the American funds and there are always viable alternatives.