Barron's Best Fund Families, 2024
https://www.barrons.com/articles/best-fund-families-nvidia-market-810af9e6?refsec=mutual-funds&mod=topics_mutual-fundsTop Families for 2024: #1-Lord Abbett, #2-Sit, #3-Fidelity, #4-PGIM, #5-Nuveen/TIAA, #7-Capital Group/American Funds, #8-JPM, #10-MS, #12-DFA, #14-T Rowe Price, #20-Invesco, #23-BlackRock, #30-Pimco, #31-BNY Mellon, #36-Franklin Templeton, #37-Vanguard,...to #50.
Top Families for 5 Years: #1-SIT, #2-Fidelity, #3-DFA, #4-Pimco, #5-Thrivent, #7-Nuveen/TIAA, #9-Capital Group/American Funds, #12-JPM, #21-BNY Mellon, #24-MS, #26-T Rowe Price, #29-BlackRock, #30-Vanguard, #36-Invesco,...to #50.
In 2024, most active equity funds lagged major indexes. Those without much exposure to Magnificent 7 also lagged. But there are a few strong performers beyond the Magnificent 7. Securitized debt did the best among fixed-income, but bonds did fine too. Most investors had decent returns (and if they lagged major indexes, so what?).
Eligible fund families required at least 3 active equity OEFs/ETFs (including smart-beta), 1 global equity fund, 1 allocation/hybrid fund, 2 bond funds and 1 national muni fund. Scores in each of these categories were combined using category asset weights to determine the overall rankings. Shown above are the rankings for 2024 and 5 years (all #1 to #5, then only selected families). There are also tables for 10 years and for each category - 5 best and 5 worst.
Comments
Actually, the article at the link only profiles the first five fund families.
Would anyone really move all their money to a firm that scores higher than where they currently invest? These are also apples to oranges comparisons, given the fact that Barron's never distinguishes between Load funds, funds available only with an advisor vs on a "supermarket" or closed funds.
focusing on one-year performance across a range of actively managed funds for its primary ranking."
"Because the Best Fund Families results are asset-weighted,
firms’ largest funds have the biggest impact on their rankings."
"This year’s top five families showed some significant changes in the top two spots,
with Lord Abbett jumping from No. 39 to No. 1 and Sit Investment Associates rising from No. 11."
I believe it's unwise to select the "Best Fund Families" focusing on one-year performance.
Consider also that the largest fund(s) may have produced excellent returns (luck?)
while the vast majority of funds in the firm's stable may have greatly underperformed.
This article is an interesting read but Barron's rankings provide little value.
Have you tried the MSN link WABAC posted above?
Works for me...
Edit/Add:
"Shown above are the rankings for 2024 and 5 years (all #1 to #5, then only selected families).
There are also tables for 10 years and for each category - 5 best and 5 worst."
The MSN article shows the top 5 families for 2024 but does't include data for 5 years, 10 years, or categories.
Consider also that the largest fund(s) may have produced excellent returns (luck?)
while the vast majority of funds in the firm's stable may have greatly underperformed.
This article is an interesting read but Barron's rankings provide little value”.
Agree with @Observant1
I haven’t yet read the Barron’s piece. Enjoy these for sure. But I think it’s an impossible task. There are so many different ingredients that go into managing funds - not the least of which is downside protection. I’d give more credience to 5 or 10 year rankings. Even then, take with a grain of salt.
Thanks to @Charles and company. One can get more useful data from MFO Premium on OEFs and ETFs over 1, 3, 5, and 10 years periods.
in the US. Only 10 of them earn our greatest conviction and are awarded a High Parent rating."
"Analysts consider a variety of factors in their Parent assessments, including a firm's ability to attract, develop, and retain investment talent; approach to succession planning; risk management; product development;
and fee philosophy, among other things."
Firms With High Parent Pillar Ratings
Vanguard
Capital Group
T. Rowe
Dimensional
MFS
Dodge & Cox
Baird
Primecap
Fiduciary Mgmt.
Jensen
https://www.morningstar.com/lp/fund-family-150
Note: Email address must be provided to download Morningstar Fund Family Digest PDF.
So, one wouldn't expect, say, a bond house like Pimco, to do well in them (Doesn't mean one should sell Pimco. In fact, I own several Pimco funds that are best in class). Fidelity is well rounded now (it used to be growth heavy years ago) and does well (I have Fido 403b). But what's wrong with Vanguard (home for my IRAs)? There are lot of negative stories about Franklin Templeton and its poor showing could be expected. But look at how well Nuveen/TIAA has managed its fund business - that isn't even its main business (I have TIAA 403b).
Changes in ranking are also of interest.
Ratings are controversial - whether for fund families, funds, colleges, restaurants, many consumer products (credit cards, insurance, bank accounts). But ratings sell and many websites exist just for ratings. Barron's has its own suite of ratings.
Use rating info to ask questions, and that's what posters here have done. This story will be in Part 2 of my weekend digests that are posted elsewhere.
MFOP has its own fund family rankings with different criteria for eligibility - 5+ funds of any type. These are also performance based, but weightings used are unclear. As both Barron's and MFOP use Lipper's database, it may be interesting to compare those ratings. Within MFOP, there are also many types of rankings, so there isn't any single MFOP ranking. May be @Charles can comment. https://www.member.mfopremium.com/definitions/
"The Fund Family Rating represents quintile ranking of percentage of funds in family that have beaten their peers since inception (or back to 1960), based on absolute return, oldest share class only. A rating of 5 represents "Top" family, while 1 represents "Bottom." Ratings apply to families with at least 5 funds (up from 3 as of June 2023), age 1 calendar month or more. Since January 2022, families are also rated for the past 1, 3, and 5-year performance periods (ala Fund Alarm) to better assess near-term performance of more established families."
And a snippet quoted from the referenced article:
”Overall, it wasn’t a shabby year to be an investor, no matter where you were. According to LSEG Lipper data, the average U.S. equity fund rose 17.4%, while world equity funds gained 7.3%. Taxable bond funds rose 5.7%, while municipal bond funds returned 2.9%. Mixed-asset funds rose 10.7%. Cash did well, as Lipper data show that taxable money-market funds returned 4.9%; about $6.4 trillion remains in those accounts, close to 2023’s level.”
Not much discussion on the board lately about C/Ds, Treasury Bills or even money market funds. Curious. You’d think people would be locking in 2024 gains (offered up “tongue-in-cheek”). Personally, I don’t have a single dime invested with any of the 50 “winners” - except for a minuscule investment in one Gugenheim CEF (#48 on the list) and a small sum in Fido’s money market fund. But won’t loose any sleep over this! There’s always next year.