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According to SmartMoney, Schwab is "Best" in mutual funds and investment products.
This is a nice piece of publicity for Schwab. SmartMoney's rankings are highly regarded and garner much attention from individual investors. But what does it really mean to be "Best" and why did Schwab win the coveted rankings?
According to the article on SmartMoney's website, Schwab edged out the competition for a couple of reasons that mainly pertain to the number of mutual funds available and percentage of mutual funds that are no load (and a couple of other factors not related to mutual funds).
So, how should mutual fund investors use this information provided by SmartMoney? Investors certainly shouldn't read that they should buy their mutual funds from Schwab for the above stated reasons (number of funds and percentage that are no load). In fact, too many fund offerings�may be a�distraction for investors.
My recommendation is to use this information as one factor out of several. Other factors to consider and questions to ask when looking for a place to buy your funds: What is the transaction charge to buy a mutual fund? What is the minimum investment in the funds that are available? What mutual fund research is made available on their website?
That's enough of my point of view. Send me an email or make a comment below and tell us what you look for when choosing a discount broker to buy your funds. Maybe you don't buy through a discount broker - we still want to hear from you. Schwab �Best� for Mutual Funds originally appeared on About.com Mutual Funds on Sunday, June 6th, 2010 at 23:31:17. Permalink | Comment | Email this |