Chart of the Week – April 15, 2024

The Bottom Line: Natural Resources funds, one of 75 fund categories, posted the fifth best average return in March, but results vary by fund mandate. Notes of explanation: Funds listed in order of total return performance posted in March 2024. For mutual funds with multiple share classes, only the top performing share class is listed. […]
Chart of the Week – April 8, 2024

The Bottom Line: Funds with the highest volatilities are typically, but not always, thematic concentrated funds that expose investors to near-to-intermediate term volatility or risks. Notes of explanation: The chart displays the ten funds with the highest standard deviations of monthly returns over a three-year period along with 12-month total returns to March 31, 2024. […]
Chart of the Week – April 1, 2024

The Bottom Line: Only two sustainable fund investing options were launched in March 2024, reflecting a cooling off in sustainable mutual fund and ETF introductions. Sustainable mutual funds and ETFs launch between January 1, 2023 – March 31, 2024 Notes of explanation: New fund launches exclude listings of new mutual fund share classes. […]
Chart of the Week – March 25, 2024

The Bottom Line: J.D. Power 2024 investor satisfaction study finds a significant year-over-year increase in investor satisfaction but lower levels of younger investor client loyalty. J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Full-Service Investor Satisfaction StudySM-Overall Customer Satisfaction Index Ranking Notes of explanation: Index ranking is based on a 1,000-point scale. ^Brand is not rank eligible because it […]
Chart of the Week – March 18, 2024

The Bottom Line: With additional room for growth for sustainable bond funds, investors can expect to benefit in time from additional fund offerings and categories. Conventional and sustainable bond funds versus their respective long-term universe of funds sustainable funds Notes of Explanation: Data covers long-term funds (money market funds are excluded), as of December 2023. […]
Chart of the Week – March 11, 2024

The Bottom Line: Sustainable funds in February benefited from the strong equity markets continuing since January, with 61 sub-categories, or 83%, posting positive average returns. Notes of Explanation: Average performance of sub-sectors covers sustainable mutual funds and ETFs. Sources: Morningstar Direct and Sustainable Research and Analysis LLC. Observations: Sustainable fund assets under management attributable to […]
Chart of the Week – March 4, 2024

The Bottom Line: Passively managed mutual funds and ETFs surpassed actively managed conventional funds in 2023 but sustainable funds are still dominated by active strategies. Notes of explanation: Sources: Long-term funds exclude sustainable money market funds. Morningstar Direct, Sustainable Research and Analysis LLC. Observations: According to Morningstar, passively managed funds, or index funds, surpassed actively […]
Chart of the Week – February 26, 2024

The Bottom Line: Mean expense ratios are lower, but average weighted expense ratios of sustainable, actively managed, large-cap funds are higher than conventional fund counterparts. Notes of Explanation: Universe includes actively managed sustainable and conventional mutual funds and ETFs, based on Morningstar classifications. Basis points =1/100 of 1%. Data as of December 31, […]