Barron's - USA (2021-02-22)

February 22, 2021 BARRON’S 29

The Best Fund Families of 2020

Investors are not done parsing the events of 2020, and theBarron’sFund Family Ranking of how firms fared in that turbulent year reveals some important lessons (found in the accompanying story). This is the

fourth year we’ve ranked the fund families purely on the performance of their actively managed funds.

FUND RANKING

2020 2019 Total Weighted General World Mixed Taxable Tax-Exempt

Rank Rank Fund Family Assets (mil)* Score Equity Equity Equity Bond Bond

1 44 Manning & Napier Advisors $5,755 72.54 26 3 6 4 2

2 54 Guggenheim Investments 40,034 70.56 20 16 15 1 11

3 10 Vanguard Group 1,836,704 66.07 8 19 26 5 9

4 9 Fidelity Management & Research 1,779,875 64.79 16 24 8 8 35

5 47 Morgan Stanley Investment 77,902 62.95 1 10 18 51 52

Management

6 35 Transamerica Asset Management 48,738 62.46 10 8 9 48 23

7 14 Lord Abbett 175,300 61.26 9 31 3 46 30

8 51 Brinker Capital 14,011 60.52 2 9 7 53 48

9 28 American Century 154,321 60.50 18 13 19 27 6

Investment Management

10 4 Columbia Threadneedle 179,658 59.90 13 32 14 15 42

Investments

11 2 Virtus Investment Partners 48,912 59.41 28 36 1 39 4

12 20 T. Rowe Price 761,480 59.38 32 17 4 24 33

13 25 Saratoga Capital Management 1,251 59.23 50 4 24 2 53

14 53 American Funds 2,290,068 58.93 43 12 35 3 18

15 23 John Hancock 188,266 58.74 27 22 13 17 40

16 27 First Trust Advisors 33,377 58.07 4 43 12 40 39

17 45 Thrivent Mutual Funds 30,089 57.97 6 46 22 19 24

18 13 BlackRock 340,679 57.69 24 15 21 18 47

19 6 Nuveen 233,819 57.19 14 7 16 47 32

20 52 AssetMark 3,952 56.21 3 52 31 13 36

21 21 PGIM Investments 163,978 55.94 7 1 52 42 27

22 8 Putnam Investment Management 82,302 55.78 11 26 20 41 26

23 46 SIT Investment Associates 1,826 55.22 21 6 2 52 49

24 18 J.P. Morgan Asset Management 454,621 55.16 12 18 29 34 29

25 42 UBS Asset Management 12,563 55.00 23 37 10 43 10

26 29 BNY Mellon Investment Management 63,649 54.41 5 34 38 32 25

FUND RANKING

2020 2019 Total Weighted General World Mixed Taxable Tax-Exempt

Rank Rank Fund Family Assets (mil)* Score Equity Equity Equity Bond Bond

27 26 Amundi Pioneer Asset Management 46,209 53.07 34 2 36 38 28

28 15 Wells Fargo Funds $88,736 52.93 19 28 44 9 44

29 38 Pimco 415,290 51.95 17 51 25 29 5

30 32 Ivy Investment Management 60,875 51.78 38 20 17 35 34

31 31 Delaware Management 64,045 51.53 41 14 51 6 1

32 30 Federated Investors 84,141 51.41 47 11 33 7 45

33 3 DWS Group 30,427 50.36 42 21 23 23 37

34 1 MFS Investment Management 370,531 49.79 36 39 27 12 38

35 11 Natixis Investment Managers 151,678 49.49 45 5 34 31 51

36 49 Affiliated Managers Group 88,905 49.38 30 40 11 49 7

37 12 Hartford Funds 114,072 48.78 25 27 46 25 12

38 36 Neuberger Berman 38,096 48.40 35 48 32 10 43

39 34 Goldman Sachs Asset Management 120,060 48.01 37 38 39 14 22

40 7 State Street Bank & Trust 22,867 47.96 49 47 5 30 31

41 22 Invesco 324,250 47.28 39 25 45 20 20

42 5 Principal Global Investors 183,536 47.16 46 30 28 28 21

43 39 MainStay Funds 66,624 46.44 29 44 37 37 3

44 43 USAA Investments** 60,434 45.25 22 45 48 21 14

45 48 Franklin Templeton Investments 472,488 44.74 33 35 49 26 17

46 24 Northern Trust Investments 28,110 43.75 53 23 40 16 16

47 37 SEI Group 97,141 42.75 48 50 42 11 13

48 33 Eaton Vance 106,755 42.36 52 29 30 33 19

49 17 Victory Capital Management** 36,030 42.32 44 33 50 22 8

50 50 Russell Investments 35,848 40.49 15 42 53 45 41

51 41 Dimensional Fund Advisors 449,162 38.55 40 41 41 44 50

52 40 AllianceBernstein 99,610 35.97 31 49 47 50 15

53 55 BMO Asset Management 7,860 32.36 51 53 43 36 46

*Total assets reflect the funds included in the survey. **Victory Capital acquired USAA in July of 2019, but the fund families are ranked separately.

Source: Refinitiv Lipper

U.S. Equity

Morgan Stanley had five of its stock

funds return more than 100% in 2020—

such outsize returns are a rare feat but

achieved by 25 funds last year.

Rank Best Score

1 Morgan Stanley 34.38

Investment Management

2 Brinker Capital 27.98

3 AssetMark 27.24

4 First Trust Advisors 25.92

5 BNY Mellon Investment 25.12

Management

Rank Worst Score

49 State Street Bank & Trust 12.26

50 Saratoga Capital Management 12.11

51 BMO Asset Management 11.71

52 Eaton Vance 10.98

53 Northern Trust Investments 9.75

World Equity

No. 1-ranked Manning & Napier came in

third for world stock, thanks in part to its

Rainier International Discovery fund, which

returned 41%, beating 94% of its peers.

Rank Best Score

1 PGIM Investments 15.76

2 Amundi Pioneer Asset 14.99

Management

3 Manning & Napier Advisors 14.99

4 Saratoga Capital

Management 14.66

5 Natixis Investment Managers 14.41

Rank Worst Score

49 AllianceBernstein 4.78

50 SEI Group 4.76

51 Pimco 4.28

52 AssetMark 3.46

53 BMO Asset Management 2.76

Mixed Asset

Strong performance in funds that

own both stocks and bonds from No.

11-ranked Virtus, which also lands at

No. 2 on both the five- and 10-year lists

Rank Best Score

1 Virtus Investment Partners 20.28

2 SIT Investment 20.05

Associates

3 Lord Abbett 19.67

4 T. Rowe Price 18.29

5 State Street Bank & Trust 18.12

Rank Worst Score

49 Franklin Templeton 5.55

Investments

50 Victory Capital Management 4.40

51 Delaware Management 4.28

52 PGIM Investments 4.06

53 Russell Investments 3.85

Taxable Bond

No. 2-ranked Guggenheim had a strong

year in fixed income: Its Total Return

Bond fund returned more than 15% in

2020, beating all but one of its peers.

Rank Best Score

1 Guggenheim Investments 21.20

2 Saratoga Capital 19.99

Management

3 American Funds 19.65

4 Manning & Napier Advisors 16.95

5 Vanguard Group 16.52

Rank Worst Score

49 Affiliated Managers Group 4.32

50 AllianceBernstein 4.04

51 Morgan Stanley Investment 2.14

Management

52 SIT Investment Associates 1.55

53 Brinker Capital 1.49

Municipal Bond

For at least five years running,

Delaware Management hovered in the

bottom half of our list. Its robust lineup

of muni funds have done well, though.

Rank Best Score

1 Delaware Management 4.39

2 Manning & Napier Advisors 3.88

3 MainStay Funds 3.86

4 Virtus Investment Partners 3.71

5 Pimco 3.66

Rank Worst Score

49 SIT Investment Associates 0.64

50 Dimensional Fund Advisors 0.59

51 Natixis Investment Managers 0.45

52 Morgan Stanley Investment 0.37

Management

53 Saratoga Capital

Management 0.14

Source: Refinitiv Lipper