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Here come the load funds! More load funds are popping
up in No Transaction Fee supermarkets—minus
the loads. J.P. Morgan, Hotchkis
&
Wiley, Calamos,
Morgan Stanley, Allianz, Columbia, Oppenheimer,
ClearBridge, Western Asset, and Thornburg are all in
NTF
plans now. They carry the standard minimum
investment and are generally load-waived A shares.
There are a few big exceptions, though. Fund
giants American,
MFS
, and Franklin Templeton have
not joined the
NTF
trend, possibly because they are
such staples of the brokerage world.
In any case, this change opens up a lot more opportu-
nities for no-load investors. Let’s take a look at a few
of the firms. Some of their funds were already in the
M
500
, and two new additions are noted on Page
22
.
J.P. Morgan
J.P. Morgan offers a number of straightforward, well-
run funds. They are generally designed to be core
holdings that work just as you’d expect them to. The
firm eschews extremes in risk to go right down
the center. We give Morningstar Medalist ratings to
equity, bond, foreign-equity, and target-date funds
from the firm, including
JPMorgan Value Advantage
JVAAX
, which has a Morningstar Analyst Rating
of Silver in the large-value Morningstar Category. We
do give Neutral ratings to a suite of
JPM
organ
Investor allocation funds, in part because of a change
in management.
Oppenheimer
Tread carefully with this firm. It has some strong
foreign-equity funds, such as
Oppenheimer Developing
Markets
ODMAX
, which we rate Silver. But its
bond funds took on big risks that burned fundholders
both in taxable and municipal bonds. Its domestic-
equity funds are middling and have a mix of Neutral
and Bronze ratings.
Hotchkis & Wiley
This deep-value firm is better than some of its funds’
records look right now. Its equity funds employ a disci-
plined deep-value approach that can be rewarding
but is currently at a low ebb. The brutal decline in
natural-resources stocks hurt the firm’s deep-value
strategies in
2014
and
2015
, though they have recov-
ered a bit.
Columbia
Columbia is the aggregation of a number of fund
companies. Many of the firms under the Columbia
umbrella were acquired in Bank of America’s acquisi-
tion spree before the firm was sold to Ameriprise,
which then merged it with its own RiverSource group.
We give its funds five Neutral ratings and five Medalist
ratings—that’s nothing to write home about. But still,
there are some good ones, like Silver-rated
Columbia
Dividend Income
GSFTX
run by Scott Davis and team.
Western Asset
This firm is a well-regarded bond specialist. Funds like
Western Asset Core Plus Bond
WAPAX
are definitely
worth a look. However, their appeal is reduced by
the fact that the load-waived A shares available through
NTF
plans are much pricier than their institutional
shares, and expenses are particularly critical for fixed-
income funds.
Thornburg
These funds aren’t what they once were. Asset bloat
and manager defections hurt their records and
have led to lower ratings.
Thornburg International
Value
TGVAX
is all the way down to Neutral.
However,
Thornburg Investment Income Builder
TIBAX
merits a Bronze rating.
Morgan Stanley
The firm sold most of its asset-management business
to Invesco but retained Dennis Lynch’s growth team,
which earned the Morningstar Domestic-Stock Fund
Manager of the Year accolade in
2013
.We give the bold
Morgan Stanley Institutional Growth
MSEGX
a
Silver rating. It’s a focused fund with a fondness for
social-media stocks like
FB
and
TWTR
, so be prepared for a lot of volatility if you buy
this one.
K
Load Funds Get More Accessible
The Contrarian
|
Russel Kinnel
Our Contrarian Approach
I go against the grain to
find overlooked funds that may
be ready to rally.