Bigger Mutual Funds Not Always a Better Choice

Smart-

Money

Despite America's mentality that biggeris always better, investing in big US mutualfunds is not always the best choice forphysician-investors. According to , it is difficult for managers of biggerfunds to buy and sell shares withoutmoving the market, and it is hard to investin smaller companies because a moderatepercentage of a fund's assets can translateinto a big portion of the firm's overallvalue. If you still would like to stick withmutual funds, consider going small andswitch to a fund that holds less assets, anddon't write off other funds because youare not happy with your fund's results. Forexample, Putnam's Fund for Growth &Income (PGRWX), with $16.3 billion in assets,has had a 5-year average return of2.8%, while the Putnam New Value fund(PANVX), with only $1.9 billion, averaged8.2% over the past 5 years. Instead ofsticking with the Janus fund (JANSX),which has a -6.9% 5-year average returnfor its $21.3 billion, you may want to moveyour money to Janus Core Equity (JAEIX)and receive a 1.1% return over 5 years.