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 We're going to continue with our reviews of mutual fund families with Pioneer Mutual Funds. Here we're going to provide a brief background of the company itself, including the services Pioneer offers to investors. We'll also provide you with some information on the performance of their mutual funds.
Pioneer Family of Mutual Funds
Pioneer mutual funds are offered through Pioneer Investment Management, Inc. which is the U.S. subsidiary of Pioneer Global Asset Management S.p.A. Pioneer manages approximately $325 billion under the name Pioneer Investments, with approximately $83 billion under management in the United States. As a global company, Pioneer operates out of Boston, Dublin, Milan and Singapore.
Pioneer employs roughly 200 investment professionals worldwide. They offer investors help with retirement planning including traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, Coverdell Education Savings Accounts, 529 plans and 403 (b) plan management. Pioneer fund was launched in 1928 by Philip Carret and his deep appreciation of international investment opportunities remains deeply rooted throughout Pioneer even today.
Pioneer Funds Fee Structure and Returns
Morningstar ratings indicates that the expense ratio for mutual funds at Pioneer range from average for their domestic stock funds (1.56%) and municipal bond funds (1.18%) to above average for their international stock funds (1.92%) and taxable bond (1.32%). Although Pioneer claims that their investment focus is on international opportunities, 58% of their funds are in domestic stocks, while another 20% is in taxable bonds funds. Only 4% of the assets under management are in international stocks.
The minimum investment is $1,000 at Pioneer. In addition to their relatively high expense ratio, only 1.59% of their funds assets are in no-load mutual funds. As of November 2007, the average return for the Pioneer family of mutual funds was 13.34% over the last five years.
Top Rated Pioneer Mutual Funds
Two out of the three top rated mutual funds at Pioneer are bond funds. Unfortunately one of these funds are also closed to new investors. The third fund we will take a look at is a domestic stock fund. That being said, let's review our list of the top three rated mutual funds at Pioneer:
- Pioneer AMT-Free Municipal A (PBMFX) - with over $495 million in assets, this is one of the smaller funds at Pioneer. This bond fund consists primarily of AAA bonds (47.9%). Nearly all of the bonds are investment quality (BBB or higher). Top holdings include San Joaquin Hills California 5%, Massachusetts State Housing Finance Authority 5.4% and Indiana State Development Finance Authority 5.6% bonds. The expense ratio for this fund is 0.86% and the minimum investment is $1,000. The average return over the last five years is 4.89% as of November 2007.
- Pioneer Global High Yield A (PGHYX) - with just over $2.1 billion in assets, this is another relatively small bond fund from Pioneer. Investments here are in non-investment quality bonds with 20% of the funds assets in bonds that category. Top three holdings including Ineos Group Holdings (7.875%), NCO Group (11.875%) and GC Impsat Holdings (9.875%). The expense ratio for this fund is 1.10% and the fund requires a minimum investment of $1,000. The fund carries a front load of 4.5% and the average return over the past five years is 14.94%. (November 2007)
- Pioneer Cullen Value A (CVFCX) - the final fund we're going to review has over $3.4 billion in assets under management and the focus is on large value domestic stocks. This fund places emphasis on the financial services (22.7% of stock assets) and the manufacturing industry (50.4% of assets). Top holdings include Bunge, Ltd.., Unilever, and Raytheon Company. The expense ratio for this fund is 1.08% and the fund charges a front load of 5.75%. Minimum investment for this fund is $1,000, while the average return over the last five years was 16.09%. (November 2007)
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