3 Mutual Fund Misfires To Avoid In Your Retirement Portfolio - January 27, 2020

You may need to start looking for a new financial advisor if your current one has put any of these high-fee, low-return "Mutual Fund Misfires of the Market" into your portfolio.

High fees plus poor performance: It's a pretty simple formula for a bad mutual fund. Some are worse than others - and some are so bad that they have earned a "Strong Sell" on the Zacks Rank, the lowest ranking of the nearly 19,000 mutual funds we rank daily.

Below, you'll read about some of the funds included in our current list of "Mutual Fund Misfires of the Market." And if by chance you're invested in any of these misfires, we'll help and review some of our highest Zacks Ranked mutual funds.

3 Mutual Fund Misfires

Now, let's take a look at three market misfires.

Leader Short-Term Bond Fund C (LCMCX): Expense ratio: 2.16%. Management fee: 0.75%. After expenses, the 5 year return is -0.43%, meaning your fees are far higher than the fund's returns.

AQR Style Premia Alternative I (QSPIX): 1.48% expense ratio, 1.35%. QSPIX is a Long Short - Equity option. These funds' investment strategy consists of minimizing overall market exposure, while at the same time taking long positions in equities that are expected to appreciate and short positions in equities that are projected to decline. This fund has yearly returns of -0.48% over the most recent five years. Another fund liable of having investors pay more in charges than what they receive in return.

Janus Henderson Diversified Alternatives T (JDATX): This fund has an expense ratio of 1.29% and management fee of 1%. JDATX is an Allocation Balanced mutual fund. Allocation Balanced funds look to invest across asset types, like stocks, bonds, and cash, and including precious metals or commodities is not unusual; these funds are mostly categorized by their respective asset allocation. With an annual average return of 0.48% over the last five years, the only thing absolute about this absolute return fund is that it absolutely deserves to be on our "worst offender" list.

3 Top Ranked Mutual Funds

There you have it: some prime examples of truly bad mutual funds. In contrast, here are a few funds that have achieved high Zacks Ranks and have low fees.

Janus Henderson Enterprise I (JMGRX) is a winner, with an expense ratio of just 0.75% and a five-year annualized return track record of 14.49%.

WCM Focused International Growth Fund Institutional (WCMIX): Expense ratio: 1.03%. Management fee: 0.85%. WCMIX is a part of the Non US - Equity fund category, many of which will focus across all cap levels, and will typically allocate their investments between emerging and developed markets. WCMIX has managed to produce a robust 11.78% over the last five years.

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Hartford Mid Cap Fund HLS IB (HBMCX) has an expense ratio of 0.95% and management fee of 0.66%. HBMCX is a Mid Cap Blend mutual fund, and usually features a portfolio with stocks of various styles and sizes, allowing for diversification within a strategy that focuses on mid cap companies. With annual returns of 11.46% over the last five years, this fund is a well-diversified fund with a long track record of success.

Bottom Line

So, there you have it - if your advisor has you invested in any of our "Mutual Fund Misfires of the Market," there is a good probability that they are either asleep at the wheel, incompetent, or (most likely) lining their pockets with high fee commissions at your financial expense.

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Written By: Zacks Investment Research