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 @DAK:
CVLOX is available with no load (and NTF) at Schwab and likely elsewhere.
MALOX (love the ticker) is likely not available at the retail level anywhere. At least I've never found it. Nor have I ever found MDLOX load-waived at the r…
Reply to @Anonymous:
Are you suggesting that this fund lost 35% of its assets in one month (its fiscal year ends Nov 30th)? Sorry, doesn't pass the laugh test.
Understand the difference between the fund (which does not have a ticker) and a share …
Reply to @Sven: I've no idea why the distinction exists. Neither T. Rowe Price nor American Century brokerages restrict themselves to non-house funds.
Aside from the unique structure of Vanguard, there's also the fact that they had originally u…
It's true that 2009 expenses were generally higher (because some ERs are based on AUM, which obviously dropped at the end of 2008), but after seeing that Forester Discovery had been waiving all of its 1.35% expenses in 2009, I figured that any small…
Don't know where you're getting your average ER from. Using M* data, here's what I've got:
Fund Weight ER Category Cat Avg ER
FVALX 5% 1.25% LV 1.27%
AMAGX 5% 1.14% LG 1.36%
QRSVX 5% 1.24% SV 1.49%
INTLX 10% 1.35% World Alloc 1.34%
MAPIX 10% 1.…
Reply to @bee:
Don't know if it matters to you, but Vanguard funds are not available through VBS (Vanguard Brokerage Services). You have to buy them directly from the fund, and not through their brokerage. (The only exception that I know of is t…
A couple of different thoughts:
The rise in 2011 was in large part due to a corresponding drop in 2010. That is, 2010 Q4 LT munis dropped 5.11% (per M*) and recovered 4.35% 2011 Q1 (again per M*). All a lot of noise signifying very little. (I …
Concur with MetWest Total Return - it's a "core plus" fund, that spans the whole domestic territory, including junk, unlike "core" or typical "intermediate term" bond funds. They do take advantage of this flexibility, generally well, playing all th…
An unhappy correction to one of the posts above - neither the Costco version nor the regular (non-Costco) Deluxe version comes with any state e-Files.
From the back of the Costco Turbotax boxes:
Includes 1 State product via download (Print for free…
Some considerations: Generally, an executor is the person named in a will to administer the estate; the court must approve the naming as part of the proceeding to validate the will, i.e. probate. Since the will was not probated, how did you become …
Reply to @Investor:
I agree. They have to have all the forms regardless of version, and except for one year when I experimented with the Home and Business edition, have never gone above the Deluxe version. Without going into my reasons for tryin…
Cathy, I suspect that the M* 2008->2009 bug is an "off by one" error that will soon be corrected, and is due to the year changing. In the meantime, you can take advantage of that bug by telling the portfolio manager to display 2007; it will disp…
I tend to forget Turbotax's free online 1040EZ; coupled with their state form for this version at $20.95, that comes out cheapest. Intuit says that this free version handles both the 1040EZ (which couldn't be used for mutual fund investors, as fun…
MEURX.
European fund (unlike the alternatives you listed), currently only 10% in financials (vs. the typical 16 1/2 percent). Pretty low turnover. What I've never liked about it is that it almost always hedges (though in the short term that could…
Reply to @bee:
As Scott (and PIMCO) wrote, what you're seeing are just the quarterly (income) dividends.
The annual capital gains were distributed Dec 7 (Dec 6 record date). It is generally capital gains distributions that reflect selling. …
Your accountant (and I) were oversimplifying a bit. In years when you recognize short term gains, it may matter whether the losses you recognize from some of your investments are short term or long term.
Short term losses can offset the short term …
There can be tax advantages and also tax disadvantages, depending upon your particular situation and what you expect of tax rates in the future. And that doesn't even touch the (timing) risk you are taking by going to cash for 30 days. Market coul…
Rono,
I'm sorry to hear about your step dad. At least it was not completely unexpected.
Regarding the distribution of assets: first make sure that you really do have the money. There are different forms of joint ownership, and right of surviv…
Matthews created an institutional class MICSX of Asian G&I just before it closed the fund. Now that the fund is reopening, it may be worth considering that share class if one can get it at a reasonable minimum through a broker (even with a tran…
Cathy, best wishes for you and your family. It seems like a lot of people here are at that age where their parents need help or are passing away.
A few items from my own experience might prove helpful. Like you, I was named a co-executor, but ha…
You're being too kind. Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the Realtors, said the organization had been noticing that its data showed higher volumes of sales than other indicators like records of property deeds and mortgage applications. It revised its…
Three comments:
- GNMA funds do not provide the level of interest rate risk safety that you're expecting out of intermediate term bonds. This is because, if interest rates drop, rather than getting a boost in price, people will refinance, your bo…
It seems so pointless.
The first ETF is a floating rate investment grade fund; Ron notes that category has not attracted much interest. It's worse than that, though; he lists Market Vectors ETF (FLTR) (an existing competitor) on his Dec ETF deat…
Those are two different (albeit related) questions. Can't help you get institutional class shares (well, for less than $1M - Vanguard will sell them to you at that level), but you can get A class shares no load at Schwab.
Both Vanguard and TSP provide expense ratios using 2010 figures (so they're both out of date, but comparable). TSP's 2010 expenses were 0.025%. Regardless of portfolio. Vanguard's target date funds were 0.16% to 0.19%. While very low, Vanguard …
It also covered those with the worst 2011 performance. (Psychic author - telling us the best and worst funds for 2011 with data just through Dec 2nd.)
There's no discussion because there's no selection process - define the universe and list the t…
First, clarification - the article (another Chuck Jaffe entertainment piece) is a criticism of Alliance Bernstein target date funds (as being poor choices within the target date universe). It's not a criticism (or even a critique) of target date f…
Wells Fargo Advantage Growth can't be popular. Haven't you heard? It's one of the ten most unknown funds (and I hear it violates its prospectus, too :-)
Sigh, here we go again. Sequoia may not seek publicity, but it's really hard to consider what Jaffe (in his usual excessive style) called "the Holy Grail of mutual funds", and (more significantly) that was extensively covered in the press in 2008 w…
Most (not all) crimes require mens rea, aka intent. Lacking that, one might pursue civil action (e.g. negligence - breach of duty of care, etc.).
My very cursory first impression (just from your writings - haven't really followed the details) is t…
IMHO, all sturm und drang signifying little. Your dividend fund pays you last as well - since you have to your own costs first (here, trading costs). You're only getting net.
And that's all this whole thread at M* is saying (aside from what a …
I am confident all (or very nearly all) people here include checking/savings accounts, money market funds, etc. But I'll bet that for many, it goes further.
Personally, I consider CDs cash - there is no money at risk, you know in advance what it i…
David,
A little Googling (I'm sure that's a trademark :-) leads to the conclusion that your venerable friend should consider contacting Ameriprise with the document info.
Investors Syndicate Title & Guaranty Company wound up as the NY subsidia…
We have to be very careful about what words mean. "Expected maturity" is an informed hope, the "date on which principal of a bond or note is projected to be repaid based on assumptions about project performance." Definition from AMEX.
The average…
Total capital gains = long term gains + short term gains.
Note that short term capital gains in mutual funds are treated as (nonqualified) ordinary income.
On your 1099 all you'll see is long term gain distributions and income distributions (which …
Thanks again David. I agree that pursuing turnover calculations is not productive (and would appear to be a generic bond fund question, not one particular to Riverpark).
One hopes the cap stays in place; well, one hopes that the total expenses …
