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 This week we'll be reviewing Hartford Mutual Funds. Hartford is a pretty well known company, especially if you're looking for life insurance. But the insurance and investment services industry are all about managing money and that means there is a good fit for these same companies to offer investors mutual funds.
Hartford Family of Funds
Hartford Mutual Funds is part of The Hartford which is a leading provider of investment products such as life insurance, auto and homeowners insurance. Founded in 1810, Hartford is headquartered out of Hartford, Connecticut (where else?). The company claims to have millions of customers serviced by its network of 11,000 independent agents and over 100,000 registered brokers.
The Hartford family of mutual funds offers investors the opportunity to work with Wellington Management Company, which is one of the oldest and largest independent investment firms in America. Hartford offers investors a complete array of products including online account access, 401k plans, Roth IRAs, 529 college savings plans, mutual funds and life insurance. Hartford's family of mutual funds currently has around $50 billion in investor assets under its management.
Hartford Funds Fee Structure and Returns
Morningstar ratings indicate that the expense ratio for mutual funds at Hartford all received an average rating including domestic (1.36%), international (1.49%) and taxable bond funds (1.13%), and municipal bond funds (1.19%). Hartford's mutual funds are heavily weighted towards domestic stock funds (71.8% of assets), with taxable funds a distant second (11.8%).
Hartford is one of the few mutual fund families reviewed that does not require a minimum investment for some of its funds, however, lower balances sometimes attract an additional account maintenance fee, usually in the range of $15 to $50 annually. Hartford offers investors a mix of mutual funds with a front load (40.8% of assets) and no-load mutual funds (59.2%). As of the end of November 2007, the average return on the family of funds offered by Hartford was 15.96%
Top Rated Hartford Mutual Funds
The top rated mutual funds at Hartford contains a mix of large cap mutual funds and bond funds. Interestingly, we're seeing quite a good combination of features with these funds, including one that has no minimum investment requirement and another that has a front load. All that being said, here is a list of the top rated funds from Hartford:
- Hartford Capital Appreciation HLS IA (HIACX) - with over $16 billion in assets, this fund specializes in large cap stocks spread fairly evenly across the information, services and manufacturing sectors. Top holdings for this fund include Google, Inc., Companhia Vale Do Rio Doce (ADR), and IBM. The expense ratio for this fund 0.66% and there is no load on this fund. The average return over the last five years is 19.66%. (November 2007)
- Hartford Capital Appreciation A (ITHAX) - with nearly $21 billion in assets, this large cap fund specializes in the manufacturing (47%) and services (32%) sectors of the market. Top holdings include Google, Inc., and Cisco Systems, Inc. The expense ratio for this fund is 1.17% and the fund charges a front load of 5.5% - a relatively high load based on funds reviewed to date. The minimum investment for this fund is $1,000 and the average return over the last five years is 18.45%. (November 2007)
- Hartford Growth Opportunities HLS IA (HAGOX) - with $1.7 billion in assets, this large growth mutual fund is spread evenly across the information (32%), services (38%), and manufacturing (31%) sectors. Top holdings include Google Inc., Schering-Plough Corporation, and Adobe Systems Inc. The expense ratio for this no-load fund is 0.63% and there is no minimum investment. The average return over the last five years is 20.61%. (November 2007)
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