Mutual Funds vs. Stable Value Option

The investment plans for most 401(k) retirement savings plans employ mutual funds and stable value funds. Mutual funds are professionally-managed groups of investment instruments, such as stocks, bonds and money Read More

Do the Units of a Mutual Fund Change?

Much like companies that divide ownership among their investors with shares of stock, mutual funds divide their ownership into units. But the similarity ends there. While the number of available Read More

Can a Limited Liability Company Hold Mutual Funds?

A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is an entity created under state law thats allowed to conduct business in its name rather than the names of its individual owners. Securities brokerages Read More

GASB Rules for Mutual Funds

The Government Accounting Standards Board is a federal agency whose main purpose is to enhance and develop standards and practices in accounting reports. The standards that the GASB uses are Read More

How to Cancel a Mutual Fund

If youre a novice investor, you may wonder what a mutual fund is, what the benefits are for investing in one and how you can cancel your mutual fund investment Read More

Collective Funds vs. Mutual Funds

Collective funds, or collective investment trusts, are similar to mutual funds. Both generate returns from a mix of asset classes. They both also rely on pooling money from many investors Read More

Commingled Fund Vs. Mutual Fund

Mutual funds and commingled funds are professionally managed pools of assets owned by their investors. Most mutual funds are open-end funds, purchased through your broker. Commingled funds are purchased through Read More

The Advantages of Pre-Emerging Mutual Funds

The world’s most developed economies are the U.S. Japan, Germany, France, Italy, U.K. and Canada. Emerging economies are the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and the MIKTs (Mexico, Indonesia, Read More

Letter of Instruction for Mutual Funds

The charitable donation of mutual funds to a nonprofit organization requires more documentation than a donation of cash or property. Donors who donate mutual fund shares, which are securities and Read More

How Mutual Fund Prices Fluctuate with the Market

Investing in mutual funds is a way to gain exposure to stocks, bonds and other assets without buying individual investments yourself. A mutual fund uses cash it receives from investors Read More

How Many Mutual Funds Can One Be a Part Of?

Putting all of your eggs in one basket is one of the cardinal sins of investing. If you use a large proportion of your wealth to buy one thing, like Read More

Financial Planning and Mutual Funds

Financial planning is meant to help create a road map to meet your future financial goals, but the future is uncertain so things don’t always go according to plan. A Read More

Selling Mutual Funds & Reinvesting Capital Gains

The Internal Revenue Service considers just about everything you own, including personal possessions like your home and car and investments like your stocks, bonds and mutual funds, to be capital Read More

What Determines Whether the Price of a Mutual Fund Goes Up?

Mutual funds are professionally managed investments that own a collection of assets like stocks and bonds. When you buy a mutual fund, your returns are based on the performance of Read More

Mutual Funds Class C vs. D

All shares of a given mutual fund are not necessarily the same. Different share classes subject you to different fees, so that two investors with the same number of shares Read More

Mutual Fund Track Record Definition

A mutual fund’s track record cannot be fully understood by looking at price performance, but it is a good starting point, preferably over several different time spans. Various fund management Read More

Can I Enter a Sell Order for Mutual Funds After a Close?

Mutual funds offer the benefits of professional management, instant diversification and precise recordkeeping in return for various fees. Open-end mutual funds create and cancel shares whenever investors add or withdraw Read More

Can I Get Started in a Mutual Fund for $25 Per Month?

One of the bedrock foundations of investing is diversification — or as your grandma used to say, Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. The idea is to spread Read More

What Is a Series A Mutual Fund?

Between five-letter abbreviations and a sixth letter for share class, mutual funds can be a veritable alphabet soup for investors. One important fact to remember is some mutual funds have Read More

Investing in mutual funds is a way to gain exposure to many different stocks and bonds without breaking the bank, because a single fund can own a collection of hundreds Read More

What Is Considered a Low Cost Expense Ratio?

An exchange-traded fund is a package of investments, including stocks, bonds and commodities, traded on various stock markets around the globe. A mutual fund operates in a similar manner, though Read More

Difference Between a Management Fee & an Expense Ratio

Mutual funds pool investors’ money to buy stocks, bonds and other securities. The funds incur various costs, such as management compensation and trading commissions. Mutual fund investors bear these costs Read More

Real Estate Fund Liquidation Requirements

A real estate investment trust is a fund that works much like a mutual fund which invests in real estate. Like a mutual fund, a REIT pools money from a Read More

How to Exchange Mutual Funds Without Tax

Investors who invest in mutual funds buy shares of stocks and other securities from mutual fund companies, which aggregate investments from different investors to buy different securities for their portfolios. Read More

Open Ended vs. Closed Ended Real Estate

Real estate can be bought and sold on the stock market when it is packaged inside a real estate investment trust. A REIT is a financial security, similar to a Read More

What are Pooled Investment Accounts?

Two important factors that relate to successful investing are diversification and professional management of funds. Diversification means having your funds invested in a variety of securities in a variety of Read More

How to Cash Out of a Money Market Account

Money market accounts come in two forms: money market mutual funds and money market deposit accounts. However, you can cash in either of these account types at any time. Money Read More

What Is the Difference Between a Weighted Average Expense Ratio & a Net Expense Ratio?

When investors choose mutual fund investments for their portfolios, it’s important for them to think about some of the management costs associated with different fund options. All mutual funds pay Read More

How to Calculate Capital Gains Reinvested

When you own a mutual fund or dividend reinvestment plan, you can choose to have any capital gains generated paid out to you or reinvested in additional shares. Reinvesting your Read More

How to Calculate the Pretax Rate of Return on a Fund

When comparing mutual funds, exchange-traded funds or any other type of investment, one of the most important measures to consider is its pretax rate of return. The pretax rate of Read More

Net vs. Gross Dividend

A stock or mutual fund that pays dividends will return some of its earnings to investors. The amount of the dividend is not as important as the yield, meaning the Read More

Difference Between Portfolio Beta & Standard Deviation

Modern portfolio statistics attempt to show how an investment’s volatility and return measure against a given benchmark, such as U.S. Treasury bills. Beta and standard deviation are measures by which Read More

Tax Implications of Cashing in Your Mutual Funds

A mutual fund is a basket of stocks or other financial securities that you can buy shares in. When you sell mutual fund shares, you are required to pay taxes Read More

The Disadvantages of Unit Trust

Unit investment trusts, or UITs, are packaged investment products formed under the same rules as mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Unit trusts are sold exclusively by brokers or licensed Read More

What Is the Total Asset-Based Expense Ratio?

The total asset-based expense ratio is equal to operating expenses divided by the fund’s assets, and is expressed as a percentage. These expenses include management fees, 12b-1 fees and other Read More

How to Calculate the Expense Ratio of a Mutual Fund

The expense ratio of a mutual fund measures how much of the pooled invested funds is devoted to the costs of running the mutual fund. As a result, the money Read More

What Is the Maximum Shelf Life of a Mutual Fund Prospectus?

Investors in mutual funds receive a fund prospectus when purchasing a fund. Updated versions of the prospectus are sent to investors throughout the year as per legal requirements. While it Read More

How to Calculate Interest Earned in a Mutual Fund

A mutual fund is an investment device that pools the money of many investors to gain stability and long-term growth. An investor in a mutual fund buys shares in the Read More

Portfolio Turnover Ratio

There are many metrics to help investors determine which mutual fund to invest in. One of the most common is the portfolio turnover ratio. The portfolio turnover ratio will let Read More

Penalties for Withdrawing Money Market Funds

Money market funds are mutual funds. Although you do not have to pay a penalty for selling your shares in a fund, you may have to pay a sales commission Read More

The Best Commodity Mutual Funds

Commodities are an important asset class and can be a viable investment alternative to stocks and bonds for investors looking for broader investment diversifications. But investing in commodities directly can Read More

What Is a Series F Mutual Fund?

It used to be that if you wished to buy a mutual fund through your financial adviser, you had few choices. If your adviser worked for a company that represented Read More

Alternative Energy Sources & Mutual Funds

Solar energy, wind power and biofuels are all alternative energy resources and each of these categories could be the focus of a mutual fund. A mutual fund is designed to Read More

Total Expense Ratio Calculation

A mutual fund is a portfolio or basket of stocks or other financial securities that you can buy shares in. All mutual funds charge investors for expenses that are incurred Read More

What Is a Bank Loan Mutual Fund?

When you buy shares in a mutual fund, you buy shares in a large portfolio of investments held inside the fund. Thousands of mutual funds are available today, each specializing Read More

Role of the Custodian of a Mutual Fund

Mutual funds as investment companies have a corporation-like structure, including a board of directors. However, mutual funds don’t have their own operational units nor employees to perform various day-to-day functions. Read More

What Are Liquid Mutual Funds?

A mutual fund is an investment account that is typically managed by a broker and collects funds from many different investors to spend on various instruments and securities. Mutual funds Read More

Lowest Risk & Stable Retirement Income Mutual Funds

When you are retired, protecting your wealth and investment income are much more important factors than long-term growth potential. A mutual fund is a pool of securities from which you Read More

The Best Asset Allocation Mutual Funds

Mutual funds with the best asset allocation are those that have enough exposure to different types of securities and regions to generate desired returns for investors. This asset allocation picture Read More

What Is a Mutual Fund Class Z?

Class Z shares are a mutual fund class; these shares can be purchased without paying an up-front commission. If you are new to investing, load funds charge up-front commissions and Read More

How to Open a Mutual Fund Account

When you open a mutual fund account, you become a part owner of a portfolio of securities held by an investment company. Mutual fund shares can be purchased directly from Read More

What is a Money Market Certificate?

Money market certificates are essentially a type of savings product in which a bank or lending institution invests your money in a variety of investments. The interest you receive on Read More

Good Funds to Invest in Roth IRAs

Roth IRAs are solid retirement accounts. Investments grow tax-free in a Roth IRA account. The best funds for such an account have low fees and strong performance. Index funds and Read More

Which is Better: Index Mutual Fund or ETF?

Index mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) both provide investors with low cost, pooled investment products. The two fund types are often available to provide an investment option for Read More

Mutual Fund Gross Expense Ratio

One item that many investors overlook when choosing mutual funds is the expense ratio. The gross expense ratio is the mutual fund’s total operating expenses calculated on an annual basis. Read More

What Is a YTD Dividend?

One of the boxes on the statement from almost every mutual fund is a listing for year-to-date — YTD — dividends. As fund statements are sent throughout the year with Read More

The Best Mutual Funds for a Stock Market Decline

From 2000 to 2010, stocks suffered two major market declines, which caused setbacks and losses for investors. When the stock market is declining, you can ride it out, waiting for Read More

Highest-Yielding Municipal Bond Funds

No one likes to pay taxes. Investors seek to minimize taxes on unearned income. Investing in municipal securities is one way to earn revenue and avoid taxes on the proceeds. Read More

The Average Annual Interest Earned in Mutual Funds

A mutual fund is a portfolio of stocks, bonds or other investments. When you buy shares in a fund, you become a partial owner of all the securities held inside Read More

The Best Mutual Funds for Young Investors

A mutual fund is a basket of stocks or other securities that investors can own together mutually. When you buy shares in a fund, you own a portion of all Read More

What Is a Management Expense Ratio?

Investing in mutual funds can be effective because of the superior level of diversification you can achieve. At the same time, one of the major drawbacks of this form of Read More

What Is a Low Cost Index Fund?

Using index funds is an investment strategy that allows an investor to earn returns in line with the overall market. Index funds will not beat the market, but they also Read More

Solar Energy Mutual Funds

With oil prices rising and the future of energy uncertain, some investors are developing an interest in mutual funds that specialize in solar energy. Many of the mutual funds that Read More

Differences Between Mutual Fund Classes

The prospectus or website of a mutual fund may be confusing with the different available share classes: A shares, B shares, C shares and even I and R shares. Each Read More

Money Market Funds vs. Fixed Income Funds

In the search for safety and returns, some investors turn to either a money market mutual fund or a fixed income fund. Money market funds invest in short-term, low-risk securities Read More

What Are Equity Mutual Funds?

As a mutual fund investor, you have many different choices at your disposal. You can invest in equity mutual funds and profit from rises in the value of stocks, or Read More

Highest Mutual Fund Returns

Mutual funds are a popular choice as an investment vehicle due to their high return rates. Rather than investing in one or two companies, mutual funds are designed to present Read More

Mutual Funds to Buy in a Down Market

During a down market, the prices of securities fall, and this results in lower mutual fund prices. As an investor, you can attempt to minimize your losses by investing conservatively, Read More

Mutual funds benefit investors by allowing them to partake of the gains and income from a high-value professionally-managed portfolio. The expenses associated with a mutual fund’s management are satisfied by Read More

Mutual funds offer investment opportunities to all investors, including those who may only have a small amount of money to invest. There are numerous funds available offering various share classes Read More

Several mutual funds implement options strategies. While mutual funds are highly regulated investment products, options are too. Most mutual funds attempt to construct portfolios of securities that deliver meaningful performance Read More

Mutual funds are investment companies that purchase shares in other public companies. Through buying shares in a mutual fund, the individual investor participates in the gains — or losses — Read More

You can sell shares in a mutual fund at any time and in many instances you pay no fees for selling your shares. However, there are several different types of Read More

An index mutual fund buys stock shares in the same proportion as a specific stock market index. The S&P 500 stock index was the first index tracked by a mutual Read More

When you evaluate a mutual fund — whether you’re purchasing the fund for the first time or reviewing its ongoing performance — there are dozens of statistics to review. One Read More

When you make an investment in a mutual fund, there will come a time when you want to sell it. Whatever your reason for the sale, the procedure is the Read More

What Is a 12b-1 Fee in a Mutual Fund?

If you invest in mutual funds — and especially if you use a broker or investment adviser to do so — it is important to fully understand the fees related Read More

How Do Bond Fund Yields Change With Interest Rates?

A yield is the amount of annual income expressed as a percentage of principal. Bond funds collect interest from bonds in their portfolios and pay them out to the investors Read More

Individuals new to investing often look to mutual funds as a viable means of entry into the world of investing. A fair number among the thousands of funds available in Read More

Mutual Funds in a Down Market

Mutual funds have traditionally been considered a long-term investment, and investors were generally advised to ride out any market downturns because stock markets have gone up over the long run. Read More

How Much Money Do You Need for a Mutual Fund?

One of the most attractive things about mutual funds is that they give the small investor a chance to invest and enjoy the kind of diversification that is so important Read More

The Best Mutual Funds for Education Savings Accounts

The cost of college tuition has historically grown at a faster rate than inflation, making it increasingly expensive for the younger generation. Simply saving money for college can be difficult; Read More

How Does a Guaranteed Interest Mutual Fund Work?

Mutual funds that guarantee interest are called fixed-income funds, or simply income funds. Fixed-income funds invest in bonds and other securities that provide guaranteed periodic interest payments to investors. Fixed-income Read More

What Are T Shares of Mutual Funds?

Mutual fund families may offer the same mutual funds in different share classes. The share classes are designated by a letter: A shares, R shares or T-shares. Each fund family Read More

What Is a Fixed Income Fund Definition?

Fixed income fund is another common name for bond fund. Fixed income funds strive to provide investors with a steady stream of dividends and relatively stable principal values. The potential Read More

Asset allocation is a significant issue in investing. Do not put all your eggs in one basket is a simple description of the concept. An investor should distribute money among Read More

Average mutual fund performance depends on the type of fund you are measuring. For example, stock funds invest in blue chip companies and earn returns similar to the S&P 500, Read More

The Average Mutual Fund Returns

Mutual funds provide a way for the average investor to diversify their holdings into many different types of investments chosen by professional fund managers. Professional management of this type is Read More

Software for Mutual Funds

A mutual fund is a group of stocks, commodities or bonds. You buy or sell shares in the fund as opposed to an individual stock or bond. Mutual fund tracking Read More

What Is a Good Mutual Fund Yield?

Investors hold mutual funds in retirement accounts, brokerage accounts and mutual fund company accounts. Deciding which fund to purchase can be an overwhelming task. There are thousands of mutual funds. Read More

What Is a Mutual Fund Wholesaler?

A mutual fund is a financial product. As with any product, you have a manufacturer — that is, the mutual fund company — and a sales distribution network. Mutual fund Read More

What Is a Corporate Bond Fund?

Corporate bond funds are one of three major types of funds along with government bond funds and municipal bond funds. Corporate bond funds are more sensitive to economic cycles and Read More

What Is the Highest Consistent Return on a Mutual Fund?

According to New York University, stocks have gained an average of 11.3 percent per year since 1926. Unfortunately, this information alone does not tell us which type of mutual fund Read More

What Are Target Investment Funds?

Target investment funds are mutual funds, more commonly referred to as target date retirement funds. The funds are offered by mutual funds companies with a range of future retirement dates. Read More

How Much Do Hedge Fund Managers Make?

The managers of the largest hedge funds in the world can often earn hundreds of millions — if not billions — of dollars for managing the funds of their investors Read More

Mutual Fund Performance

To evaluate the performance of a mutual fund, you shouldn’t just look at the fund’s most recent performance in a vacuum. Consider your own investment objectives, your own individual tolerance Read More

What Is a Core Mutual Fund?

A mutual fund is a collection of stocks designed help investors make a balanced investment that will increase their profits in the best way possible. Mutual funds are managed by Read More

Why Bond Funds Are Bad Investments

While bond funds can play a role in a well-balanced investment portfolio, these funds have their risks as well. Before you invest any money in a bond fund, it is Read More

The Average Expense Ratio for Mutual Funds

Before you decide to keep a mutual fund investment or invest in a new fund, question its expense ratio. The mutual fund’s ratio represents the cost of owning the fund. Read More

How Much Money Should You Invest in a Mutual Fund?

An increasing number of American investors have begun to put their hopes into mutual funds as investment vehicles for retirement and other financial goals. Mutual funds do not come without Read More