OxfordPress.com

One analyst names his favorite funds

By HANK EZELL

Cox News Service

March 27, 2005

ATLANTA — In a recent article on life cycle funds, Morningstar analyst Kerry O'Boyle named three favorites.

His search was limited to no-load funds with middle-of-the-road investment strategies and targeted retirement dates of 2020 or thereabouts. O'Boyle's selections:

Recent Hank columns: [an error occurred while processing this directive] More "Bank on Hank"

Fidelity Freedom 2020
Comments: Manager Ron Cheng ... spreads assets among 18 funds, an unusually high number, including a plethora of Fidelity's large-cap domestic-equity offerings and five international funds.

T. Rowe Price Retirement 2020
Comments: Manager Jerome Clark believes that investors' greatest fear is running out of money during retirement and that they're willing to shoulder more risk in terms of the near-term volatility of stocks to have a better chance of creating more wealth for retirement.

Vanguard Target Retirement 2025
Comments: Vanguard doesn't offer a 2020 option, but even with the extra five years of this next-closest choice, it's still the most conservative of the bunch. With an expense ratio of roughly 0.22 percent, it's super cheap. The full report, entitled "The Simplicity of Target-Retirement Funds," is posted on www.morningstar.com.

Read more "Bank on Hank" columns