Lipper

Sasha Franger, Fiduciary Research Analyst, presents the Lipper Quick Guide to Fund Expenses in this WebEx replay. The Lipper Quick Guide to Fund Expenses is an annual review of average total expense ratios for different groups of funds and Lipper classifications. Economies of scale and active management contribute to differences in total expenses among mutual funds.

Sasha Franger reviewed the findings of Lipper’s three-part research series on subadvised funds. This series compared subadvised funds to funds that are not subadvised by expenses, performance, and flows. Taken together, subadvised funds do not vary significantly or predictably from their non-subadvised counterparts. This points to the conclusion that the subadvisor status of the fund does not impact the investor nor do investors take the subadvisor status of a fund into account when choosing a mutual fund.

Sasha Franger discusses target date funds' equity exposure at the target date and beyond. She compares changes in equity exposure at the target date from 2008 to 2001, as well as, compares equity exposure in "to" and "through" target date series.

Subadvised funds, or funds whose portfolios are managed by an outside investment company, have taken center stage this year in part because of excessive fee lawsuits sought by investors. Sasha Franger examines the subadvisor fee to determine if an additional fee is tacked onto the existing management fee, or if other expenses decrease to compensate for the cost of the subadvisor. In addition, Sasha looks at how much of the management fee is actually retained by the advisor and/or administrator. Finally, she recommends supplementary subadvisor report content for fund management companies and boards of directors to examine during the contractual renewal process.