Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
Reply to @Investor: The problem is that just as Yahoo's historical price table for PRBLX does not have a line item for the latest cap gains distribution, neither is the distribution reflected in the adjusted close column. That's the column I was re…
Until Dec 7th, you can get an Ally Bank five year CD paying 1.60%, with only a 60 day early withdrawal penalty. So your net interest in a year is 10/12 of 1.60% or 1.33%, and higher if you hold longer.
The only downside seems to be that you have …
Regarding DoubleLine Total Return - there are two different issues here. One is whether a MBS fund is a good idea, and the other is whether Grundlach (and DoubleLine) is the best way to get such a fund.
I'll discuss each of these below, but my pe…
Total return bond funds are flexible - it's their managers who may not be. (This is in contrast to intermediate bond funds which are inflexible by prospectus.) As far as junk bonds are concerned, that's why I expressed a preference for "core plu…
Mutual funds are no different from stocks in the way their prices are adjusted. On the ex-div date (the date at which one no longer is entitled to the dividend, whether cap gain or income), the price drops by the amount of the dividend. Any furthe…
I agree with Ron. I'll go further and say that I prefer funds with the flexibility to adjust to the market, as opposed to requiring them to stay with short bonds, intermediate bonds, junk bonds, etc.
If the fund is flexible, then the manager i…
Short answer (I seem to be creating a pattern for my responses here) - yes, basically.
Longer answer - everyone has made a mess of things by conflating two simple questions: which shares did you sell, and what did they cost?
For example, the IR…
Short answer - no, covered vs. uncovered doesn't matter. (Covered mutual fund shares are shares covered by cost basis reporting requirements, which for mutual funds applies to shares purchased after Jan 1, 2012.)
Longer answer - if you're using a…
Comparing FPNIX directly with BSBIX, the Baird fund seems to generally outperform FPNIX by a few basis points. But that comes at a cost - BSBIX swooned with much of the market in 2008, FPNIX didn't. (And BSBIX made up most of the difference the n…
The article (and bee) talk about "bridges, roads, and other physical structures required for the smooth functioning of society." But when one looks under the hood of TOLLX/TOLSX, it isn't bridges, roads, railroads, airports, etc. that one sees the…
Your subset of narrower funds (short term, floating rate, high yield) suggests either a deliberate effort to tweak what the more flexible managers (such as Gaffney - EVBAX) are doing, or that you're collecting funds and perhaps inadvertently doublin…
This fund (FMLCX) will self destruct in 20 months (cue the music).
There are a variety of target maturity funds, e.g. Fidelity Defined Maturity Funds and American Century Zero Coupon Funds that self destruct by design.
Then there is the rare money…
The annuity shouldn't foul anything up from a procedural perspective. In most cases, people transfer their 401Ks/403Bs to IRAs once they leave a company anyway.
Where it does matter is from a cost perspective. Annuities tend to be used more by s…
I've always assumed that it was trade date, not settlement date that matters. That is definitely the rule for long term vs. short term holding periods. See Pub 17 (Securities traded on an established market):
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/c…
When Schwab first came out with its supermarket, its spiel was that it would save the funds so much money by servicing the accounts (instead of the fund distributor doing that), that the savings would at least cover the fee they were charging the fu…
Reply to @AndyJ:
It depends. On rare occasions, shares purchased 1-2 years ago have gained less than the projected distribution per share. From a tax perspective, it then makes sense to sell just those shares, taking care that the sale settles…
Reply to @Old_Joe:
I was going to respond with two words: omnibus account, and then link to a definition. (An omnibus account is one big bucket, as you've described a "master" account.) But in searching for definitions, I ran across this ICI pu…
Reply to @bee: Many, many years ago I owned some Advisor class shares of a T. Rowe Price fund. It was with the brokerage arm of a major bank. The reason was that with a relatively small portfolio I could get bank fees waived. I did the same ca…
The former Janus Triton and Venture management team (Chad Meade/Brian Schaub) took over the fund at the beginning of September. This may be a good thing, but in the short term, it looks like they're cleaning house.
Scanning the annual statement (…
To David's point - Appleseed is currently absorbing about 1/4% via a fee waiver, according to the current prospectus.
Don't just blame the platforms. Take a look at what Appleseed has done.
Here's a diffmk'd copy of its 2008 prospectus, filed wit…
Say the average life expectancy (at birth) is 78. Now consider all the 80 year olds (who are alive :-)). Surely they are all expected to live past 78. So by living longer they have extended their average life expectancy.
Reply to @bee: The simplified method of computing RMDs (i.e. most people just use Table III - joint life expectancy) came into effect in 2001.
Here's Pub 590 from that year: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/p590--2001.pdf
Here's the current Pub 590…
Reply to @ron:
That's their sales pitch. Looking under the hood, one sees they're playing the yield curve the same as other funds.
Sales pitch - a laddered portfolio having roughly equal investments at all rungs on the ladder, so that when the s…
While the starting point for looking at a company should be GAAP, there are valid reasons for looking from other perspectives. These "sales pitches" are allowed.
A startup, e.g. a software company, may not have any large capital expenditures in th…
Fidelity has also started a series of target date muni bond funds:
https://www.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/news-analysis/defined-maturity-funds
While I suspect that any of the funds mentioned would meet your needs, I believe none of them meet your st…
In essence, paying out over a larger base gives the later investors disproportionate amount of the dividends - it's like buying a dividend. The older shareholders are the winners - they get part their "income" in the form of appreciated shares, ra…
Looking at the list of "holdings" leaves me rather uncomfortable, because what appears is not holdings at all, but simply names of issuers. There's often no way to identify the particular securities.
This becomes apparent when one compares the we…
Legg Mason (including ClearBridge and Western Asset, but not including Royce)
https://individualinvestor.myleggmason.com/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_355661_3518_1277_37025_43/http;/indinvserver;8400/indivPortletWebApp/documents/tax_information…
Reply to @hank: I was looking at more esoteric stuff (especially given the mention of PGBAX - one of the most "intriguing" funds I've seen in a long time - will have to read further). But I really like your suggestion of RPSIX.
Fine, low cost …
A year of two ago when I was taking a closer look at mid cap value funds, this wound up on my short list. My concern was the same as yours, and I passed. For readers not checking dates - Albert O. Nicholas founded the management company in 1967,…
Hey, I resemble that remark :-)
You can fine tune this strategy. Especially with large (and only vaguely estimated) dividends and cap gains distributions expected this year, it's difficult to get up to the 15% tax bracket top without going over. …
As I recall, a principal difference between Templeton Global Total Return and Global Bond is that the former can (and does) invest in corporates as well as sovereign bonds. There are at least a couple of portfolio differences that seem to be a dir…
Until the late 90s, M* classified funds according to their stated "investment objectives" - aggressive growth, growth (no focus on dividends), growth and income (secondary emphasis on income), equity income (primary focus on income, growth secondary…
"Remember, to receive a dividend, you have to own the stock at the close on the day prior to the ex-dividend date."
This is incorrect. Typically, stocks settle three business days after trade ("T+3"). This means that as far as the company is con…
I don't have any problem adding a bit to say a fund is closed or limited. I agree it's not a big deal. I just don't see the value in it.
To David's credit, he qualified his monthly commentary page to say "Closed (and other related inconveniences)…
Reply to @linter:
DFA funds - open or closed? They are generally only open if you invest through limited set of advisers who are already working with the fund. Sounds about the same as the condition for getting into RPHYX.
It's not black or w…
Technically, there is (as I read it) a back door into RPHYX. It's just not one that people here would be likely to use.
If you work with an adviser or financial planner who had clients with money in the fund as of June 21, 2013 (the closing date),…
