MFS Lifetime 2010 Fund (MFSAX) Class A

As an American-based global asset manager, MFS Investment Management offers several of investment products such as mutual funds, 529 funds, closed end funds, variable insurance portfolio, etc. One of the well-known products is MFS Lifetime funds. These target strategies funds are divided into 5 maturity dates such as 2010, 2020, 2030, 2040, and 2050. I’ll review the MFS Lifetime 2010 A (MFSAX) fund for this article.

MFS Lifetime 2010 A (MFSAX)

This MFS Lifetime 2010 fund objective is to achieve a high level total return. This balanced fund is designed to provide diversification among different asset classes by investing the majority of assets in other MFS mutual funds. Within the stock fund allocations, MFS seeks to diversify globally (by including domestic and international underlying funds). It may invest in various market capitalizations such as large cap, mid cap, and small cap. It may use different investing styles such as blend, growth, and value style. This MFS fund also invests in various MFS bond funds with variety of interest rate and credit exposure.

Fund Profile

• Fund Inception Date: 09/29/2005
• Ticker Symbol: MFSAX
• CUSIP: 55275E879
• Beta (3yr): 0.54
• Rank in category (2011): 16%
• Category: Target Date 2000-2010
• Yield: 3.22%
• Capital Gains: 0%
• Expense Ratio: 0.97%  
• Net Assets: $ 60.7 million
• Number of Years Up: 5 years
• Number of Years Down: 1 year
• Annual Turnover Rate: 29%

Updated on 01/26/2012

MFS Lifetime 2010 A

As part of fund of funds, this hybrid fund has a yield of 3.22% for the past 12 months. It has a sales load of 5.75%. The total net assets are $60.7 million. It currently also has an expense ratio of 0.97%. The fund’s turnover rate is 29%. This fund is currently open to any new investors. This fund is categorized as Target Date 2000-2010 mutual fund.

Fund Management

Since September 2005, Joseph C. Flaherty Jr. is the lead fund’s manager. Flaherty is senior vice president of Massachusetts Financial Services Co and manager of the quantitative research group. He has been with MFS since 1993.

Fund Performance

Morningstar has rated this fund with 4 stars rating. There is no analyst rating. Based on the load adjusted returns, this top rated balanced fund has returned -2.88% over the past 1 year, 9.34% over the past 3 years, and 3.70% over the past 5 years. The fund has only 1 worst return in 2008 with -14.29%. It managed to achieve its best return in 2009 with 22.43%. For 2011, this best fund has returned 3.04%.

Buying this fund and other classes

As previously explained, this fund is open to any new investor. Investor can buy this A Shares fund with $1,000 initial minimum investment for regular brokerage account and $250 for IRA account. You can buy this mutual fund from 62 brokerages such as Scottrade Load, CommonWealth PPS, TIAA-Cref NTF, Smith Barney Advisor/Portfolio Management, MSSB Brokerage, etc.

This MFS Lifetime 2010 fund is also offered in other classes such as Shares A with load waived (MFSAX.lw), B Shares (MFSBX), C Shares (MFSDX), R1 Shares (MFSEX), R2 Shares (MFSNX), R3 Shares (MFSOX), and R4 Shares (MFSPX).

Fund Composition

As of January 2012, the fund’s assets are allocated as follows: 71% in bonds, 20% in U.S. Stocks, 5% in International Stocks, and 4% in Specialty. The top 10 holdings are MFS Research Bond Fund (21.75%), MFS Limited Maturity Fund (19.77%), MFS Inflation Adjusted Bond Fund (9.89%), MFS Government Securities Fund, MFS Global Bond Fund, MFS Research Fund, MFS Value Fund, MFS Growth Fund, MFS Mid Cap Value Fund, and MFS Research International Fund (2.97%). The top 5 equity holdings are: Apple Inc, Philip Morris International Inc, Google Inc, Oracle Corp, and Danaher Corp.

Disclosure: No Position

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