Best Performing Conservative Allocation Mutual Funds April 2013

Find the best performing conservative allocation mutual funds 2013. Check the top balanced fund rated by Morningstar and US News. You may find the best fund review.

Conservative Allocation Funds

Conservative allocation mutual fund invests primarily in a combination of equities, bonds, and money market. It typically invests about 60-70% of assets in bonds or money markets. The rests are invested in stocks. As part of balanced fund category, it provides regular income and capital growth opportunity for investors. You can invest either through your brokerage or retirement account (Roth IRA or traditional IRA).

These best performing conservative allocation mutual funds are sorted based on its 1 year performance up to April 1st, 2013. The issuers of these balanced funds include Franklin Templeton, Pioneer, API, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo Advantage, etc.

The best performing conservative allocation mutual funds April 2013 are:

1. API Efficient Frontier Income fund (APIUX)
2. Pioneer Multi Asset Income fund (PMAIX)
3. Franklin Income fund (FKINX)
4. JPMorgan Income Builder fund (JNBAX)
5. Goldman Sachs Income Builder fund (GSBFX)
6. Wells Fargo Advantage Divers Income Builder fund (EKSAX)
7. Hartford Balanced Income fund (HBLAX)
8. Principal Global Diversified Income fund (PGBAX)
9. Thrivent Diversified Income Plus fund (AAHYX)
10. Nuveen NWQ Flexible Income fund (NWQAX)
11. IMS Strategic Income fund (IMSIX)
12. Natixis Diversified Income fund (IIDPX)
13. Toews Hedged Growth Allocation fund (THGWX)
14. MFS Diversified Income fund (DIFAX)
15. BlackRock Multi-Asset Income fund (BAICX)
16. PSI Strategic Growth fund (FXSAX)

Updated on 4/8/2013

API Efficient Frontier Income Fund (APIUX)

Managed by David D. Basten, it invests mainly in securities, derivatives, and other financial instruments which provide income and limited credit risk. This conservative allocation fund has 3-stars rating from Morningstar. It has $533.9 million of total net assets. The fund’s expense ratio is 1.56%. For 2013, its YTD return is 5.58%. The fund has its highest 1-year total return in 2009 with 54.27%.

The top holdings as of December 2012 are SPDR Barclays Capital High Yield Bond (6.7%), I Shares Iboxx High Yield Corporate Bond (5.4%), PIMCO 0-5 Year High Yield Corp Bond (3.7%), Peritus High Yield (3.6%) and Power Shares Build America Bond (3.0%).

Franklin Income fund (FKINX)

FKINX fund

As one of the best performer conservative allocation mutual funds, Franklin Income fund has the largest total assets of $73.2 billion. It utilizes its assets to purchase a diversified portfolio of debt and equity securities. The fund also has the lowest expense ratio of 0.64%. It has a high dividend yield of 6.04%.  2013. The fund managers Charles B. Johnson, Edward D. Perks, Alex Peters, and Matthew Quinlan.

Top Performer No Load Conservative Allocation Funds 2012

This conservative allocation mutual fund is ranked with 4-stars and Bronze rating by Morningstar. It has YTD return of 4.21%. Since its inception in 1948, it has recorded 52 years of positive return and 12 years of negative return. The best 1-year total return was achieved in 2009 with 35.01%. The worst was occurred in 2008 with -30.51%. Based on the load adjusted returns, it has returned 8.71% over the past decade.

The top bond holdings as of January 2013 are First Data Corp (4.66%), Energy Future Holdings Corp (2.88%), Chesapeake Energy Corp (1.78%), CC Media Holdings Inc (1.52%) and Sprint Nextel Corp (1.51%). The top convertible holding is Bank of America Corp with 1.73% and the top equity holding is Merck & Co with 1.77%.

JPMorgan Income Builder fund (JNBAX)

JPMorgan Income Builder fund uses its assets to buy income-producing securities and equity securities around the world. The fund’s CUSIP is 4812A3270. It is incepted in May 2007. The annual expense ratio is only 0.74%. It has $5.6 billion of total net assets. The dividend yield is 4.97%. This yield is distributed monthly. The management team consists of Neil Nuttall, Jeffery Geller, Patrik Jakobson, Anne Lester and Michael Schoenhaut.

Morningstar analysts rank this conservative allocation fund with 4-stars rating. Based on the load adjusted returns, the fund performance is listed as below:

1. 1-year: 7.11%
2. 3-year: 8.66%
3. 5-year: 6.92%
4. 10-year: N/A

The top 10 holdings represent 5.5% of the total assets (as of January 2013). They are Merck & Co Inc (0.7%), Time Warner Inc (0.6%), Royal Dutch Shell plc (0.6%), Pfizer Inc (0.5%), Russian Foreign Bond – Eurobond (0.5%), etc. It has a total of 1658 holdings. The top portfolio region breakdown is North America (62.6%), Emerging Markets (16.7%) and Europe (11.9%).

Hartford Balanced Income fund (HBLAX)

HBLAX fund

Hartford Balanced Income fund has an investment style of large value. It has a dividend yield of 2.46%. It is currently managed by W. Michael Reckmeyer and team. It targets allocation of approximately 45% equity securities and 55% fixed income investments. They are supported by full resources of Wellington Management. The fund has annual expense ratio of 0.83%. Its total net assets are $2.8 billion. This top balanced fund has annual holdings turnover of 30% as of March 6, 2013.

Top Performer Balanced Mutual Funds 2011

The fund has 0.25% 12b1 fee and 5.50% front-end sales load fee. It is rated with 4-stars rating by Morningstar. The year-to-date return is 3.88%. The best performance since inception was in 2009 with 22.42% and the only year it has negative return so far was in 2008 with -18.53%. Based on the load adjusted returns, the fund has returned 10.01% over the past 3-year and 6.74% over the past 5-year.

The top 5 equity holdings are Chevron Corp (2.03%), Johnson & Johnson (1.93%), Merck & Co Inc (1.88%), Marsh & McLennan Cos Inc (1.66%) and Royal Dutch Shell plc (1.62%). The top equity sector exposure is 21% in Financials, 14% in Industrials and 13% in each sector of Consumer Staples, Health Care and Energy.

Principal Global Diversified Income fund (PGBAX)

Principal Global Diversified Income fund is a 5-stars mutual fund. This mutual fund invests mainly in high yield bonds, preferred securities, commercial mortgage-backed securities, and emerging market debt securities, and equity securities of global companies. The total net assets are $7.0 billion. It has an expense ratio of 1.13%. This Principal fund has a yield of 5.24%.

The 3-year beta risk of this fund is 0.77. Since its inception, the fund has always recorded in positive return. The yearly performance since 2008 is as below:

• Year 2009: 39.74%
• Year 2010: 16.90%
• Year 2011: 2.70%

The other classes of this fund are Class C (PGDCX) and Class P (PGDPX). The top ten holdings as of December 2012 are Enterprise Products Partners LP (0.69%), Russian Federation (0.59%), Williams Partners LP (0.58%), Magellan Midstream Partners LP (0.58%) and Plains All American Pipeline LP (0.57%).

MFS Diversified Income fund (DIFAX)

MFS fund

MFS Diversified Income fund is managed by James T. Swanson since 2006. Its objective is to provide total return through capital growth and income. The fund has 4-stars rating from Morningstar. The investors have just received their monthly income in March 2013 ($0.03). It has 12-month dividend yield of 3.11%. The annual holdings turnover as of March 6, 2013 is 64%. The minimum initial investment for brokerage account in this fund is $1,000 and $250 for retirement (IRA) account.

The fund has year-to-date return of 3.23%. The only year it has negative return since 2006 was in 2008 with -20.14%. Based on the load adjusted returns, the fund has returned 5.31% over the past 1-year and 6.96% over the past 5-year.

The top equity holdings as of January 2013 are Simon Property Group Inc REIT, Public Storage REIT, Exxon Mobil Corp, Vornado Realty Trust REIT, Chevron Corp, Pfizer Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, etc. The top 10 represents 27.5% of equity assets.

BlackRock Multi-Asset Income fund (BAICX)

As part of Global Flexible Portfolio Funds, this BlackRock Multi-Asset Income fund is ranked with 4-stars rating. It has a decent yield of 4.51%. It has total net assets of $2.3 billion. The fund’s investment style is Large Blend. It can be purchased from a limited of 42 brokerages with 0.25% management fee and 5.25% front-end sales load fee.

The fund’s benchmarks are Lipper Global Flexible Funds IX and 50% MSCI World Index, 50% Barclays Aggregate Bond IN. The YTD return is 3.00%. It has 4 years of positive return and never has negative return so far.

The top holdings are Ishares Barclays Intermediate Credit (6.4%), Ishares Barclays 1-3 Year Credit Bond (5.5%), Ishares Iboxx $ Investop Investment (4.2%) and Ishares Iboxx $ High Yield Corporation (3.7%).

Conservative Allocation Fund Information

No	Fund Description	Ticker	Rating	Expense Ratio	Yield (%)	Net Assets (mil)	Min Invest
1	API Efficient Frontier Income A	APIUX	3	1.56	6.37	$534	$1,000
2	Pioneer Multi Asset Income A	PMAIX	N/A	0.85	6.69	$47	$1,000
3	Franklin Income A	FKINX	4	0.64	6.04	$73,200	$1,000
4	JPMorgan Income Builder A	JNBAX	4	0.74	4.97	$5,600	$1,000
5	Goldman Sachs Income Builder A	GSBFX	4	1.05	3.55	$163	$1,000
6	Wells Fargo Advantage Divers Inc Bldr A	EKSAX	2	1.08	4.25	$386	$1,000
7	Hartford Balanced Income A	HBLAX	4	0.83	2.42	$2,800	$2,000
8	Principal Global Div Inc A	PGBAX	5	1.13	5.24	$7,000	$1,000
9	Thrivent Diversified Income Plus A	AAHYX	4	0.99	3.74	$396	$1,000
10	Nuveen NWQ Flexible Income A	NWQAX	5	0.97	5.3	$6	$3,000
11	IMS Strategic Income	IMSIX	1	2.01	9.34	$40	$5,000
12	Natixis Diversified Income A	IIDPX	4	1.11	2.55	$138	$2,500
13	Toews Hedged Growth Allocation	THGWX	N/A	1.25	0.04	$23	$10,000
14	MFS Diversified Income A	DIFAX	4	1.1	3.11	$1,600	$1,000
15	BlackRock Multi-Asset Income Investor A	BAICX	4	0.8	4.51	$2,300	$1,000
16	PSI Strategic Growth A	FXSAX	N/A	1.9	2.38	$16	$2,500

Fund Performance

No	Fund Description	YTD Return (%)	1-Year Return %	3-Year Return %	5-Year Return %	10-Year Return %
1	API Efficient Frontier Income A	5.58	17.27	9.67	11.95	6.23
2	Pioneer Multi Asset Income A	4.49	15.22	N/A	N/A	N/A
3	Franklin Income A	4.21	14.39	10.73	6.53	9.31
4	JPMorgan Income Builder A	3.01	14.02	10.06	8.32	N/A
5	Goldman Sachs Income Builder A	5.34	13.97	11.27	7.59	7.66
6	Wells Fargo Advantage Divers Inc Bldr A	3.52	13.02	10.81	6.91	5.47
7	Hartford Balanced Income A	3.88	13.14	11.92	8.45	N/A
8	Principal Global Div Inc A	2.90	12.74	11.53	N/A	N/A
9	Thrivent Diversified Income Plus A	4.02	12.58	10.76	7.81	7.69
10	Nuveen NWQ Flexible Income A	3.02	12.25	11.88	N/A	N/A
11	IMS Strategic Income	2.73	11.92	6.66	1.91	3.96
12	Natixis Diversified Income A	3.53	12.37	12.52	8.75	N/A
13	Toews Hedged Growth Allocation	5.99	11.85	N/A	N/A	N/A
14	MFS Diversified Income A	3.23	11.69	10.90	8.44	N/A
15	BlackRock Multi-Asset Income Investor A	3.00	11.50	10.59	N/A	N/A
16	PSI Strategic Growth A	2.90	11.23	N/A	N/A	N/A