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It seems to me that when we opened the T-IRA rollover in BRUFX, Morningstar had it included among other 50-70 percent stock funds. That was in April, 2020. It now is labeled in the 70-85% equity group. Yes, Morningstar is often wrong and inaccurate. This is still causing just a bit of anxiety on my part. Anyone else notice this?
Funds can and often do drift across category boundaries. I would not want to see a fund whipsawed between categories every three months (funds disclose portfolios quarterly) just because it added (or subtracted) 3 or 4 percent in equities, or edged just over the line between value and blend.
That would make comparing funds difficult, let alone even finding a fund using a screener. If funds were classified based solely on their current holdings, a fund could wind up classified as a 2* 70-85% fund one quarter, a 4* 50-70% fund the next, and a 2* 70-85% later the same year.
Instead, M* incorporates some lag, and yes, some human judgment when classifying funds. Enough time to see whether the change is "transitory" (to use the word of the day), or something more permanent.
Chad Lowry: The reason why we use three years of information is, we really – we want our classifications to be stable over time and reflect what the manager is intending to do and what your performance is going to reflect over a long period of time and a timeframe that most people who own a fund would have that in their portfolio. We can tolerate slight drifts outside of the classification on the most recent portfolio if the manager tends to go back within that range, which has been demonstrated over time.
Okay. So to that point, so if there are sort of recent portfolio changes, it is not necessarily going to result in a change to the Morningstar Category?
Paul Justice: Yeah, not necessarily, and that’s where our analysts really step in and want to make an assessment to make sure that is this a temporary phenomenon or is there really a strategic change at the fund. Which is going to indicate that they are going to perform same or like a growth fund than they have been as a value fund in the past.
This fund is probably the closest investment I own that has the touch of just two people... The Bruce Family...father and son. YACKX comes to mind, but I think that has changed. Maybe there are others still, but fewer and fewer funds operate this way. Not an index fund. As old school as they come. Hell, you have to mail your buy and sell orders. I own this in my HSA. I find BRUFX helps me... keep well.
Appreciate all the replies. When I noticed the new classification, I felt unpleasantly surprised. I have read what you've shared and been to all the links. It's reassuring. Actually, @bee's prior mention of BRUFX got me to doing my own due diligence and the decision to put that old 403b rollover money into the fund. Thanks to all.
BRUFX is a controversial fund. It has a very thin management bench, no 3rd party brokerage availability, transactions still via US Mail, and is under steady redemption. While popular at one time, search on BRUFX produces 0 results at several sites now.
Comments
M* is not making up their data feed, I expect. The fund evidently has adjusted its mix. Why not? Unclear about the anxiety part.
http://portfolios.morningstar.com/fund/summary?t=BRUFX®ion=usa&culture=en-US
http://portfolios.morningstar.com/fund/holdings?t=BRUFX®ion=usa&culture=en-US
This information is as of 6/30/21 (filed 9/7/21) from the SEC (look at page 3 for bar chart):
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/47071/000158064221004260/brucefunds_n-csr.htm
Not sure I am able to locate more up to date holdings than what is already out there.
Here is a SEC filing as of June 30, 2012 (filed 9/7/12. Look for barchart).
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/47071/000119312512384027/d402032dncsr.htm
That would make comparing funds difficult, let alone even finding a fund using a screener. If funds were classified based solely on their current holdings, a fund could wind up classified as a 2* 70-85% fund one quarter, a 4* 50-70% fund the next, and a 2* 70-85% later the same year.
Instead, M* incorporates some lag, and yes, some human judgment when classifying funds. Enough time to see whether the change is "transitory" (to use the word of the day), or something more permanent. https://www.morningstar.com/articles/754147/morningstar-categories-introduction-update-2016
This fund is probably the closest investment I own that has the touch of just two people... The Bruce Family...father and son. YACKX comes to mind, but I think that has changed. Maybe there are others still, but fewer and fewer funds operate this way. Not an index fund. As old school as they come. Hell, you have to mail your buy and sell orders. I own this in my HSA. I find BRUFX helps me... keep well.