MutualFundWire.com: Morningstar Cuts its Rating on Fido's Freedom Funds by a Notch
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Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Morningstar Cuts its Rating on Fido's Freedom Funds by a Notch


Mutual fund firms with target-date products yesterday learned their latest ratings from Morningstar. The Chicago-based investment research firm unveiled its updated target-fund family ratings and reports for the fourth quarter of 2010.

Among the changes: Morningstar lowered its overall rating on Fidelity's Freedom Funds from above average to average. Meanwhile, TIAA-CREF and MassMutual saw an improvement in their ratings.

Of the Fidelity Freedom Funds, Morningstar officials said: "We lowered the rating in the parent company category because recent hiring and organization changes have not resulted in better performance, and we continue to see high manager turnover."

As for TIAA-CREF, the New York firm moved from average to above average due to "a greater share of assets in its cheapest share class as well as improved target-date transparency," according to Morningstar.

MassMutual moved from below average to average due to the gradual improvement in its portfolio quality and performance.

Morningstar assigned ratings on a total of 21 target-date fund families.
Morningstar's Target-Date Family Ratings
Fund Family 12/31/2010
Overall Rating
Vanguard Target Retirement Series Top
T. Rowe Price Retirement Series Top
American Funds Target Date Retirement Series Top
JPMorgan SmartRetirement Series Above Average
Wells Fargo Advantage DJ Target Date Series Above Average
American Century Livestrong Series Above Average
TIAA-CREF Lifecycle Series Above Average
Vantagepoint Milestone Series Above Average
ING Solution Series Average
MFS Lifetime Series Average
Fidelity Freedom Series Average
Fidelity Advisor Freedom Series Average
BlackRock LifePath Series Average
Schwab Target Series Average
John Hancock Lifecycle Series Average
Principal LifeTime Series Average
MassMutual Destination Series Average
Putnam RetirementReady Series Below Average
DWS LifeCompass Series Below Average
Oppenheimer LifeCycle Series Bottom
AllianceBernstein Retirement Str Series Bottom



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