Mutual Funds
MUTUAL FUNDS
There are thousands of mutual funds (load and no-load) to choose from when making an investment decision and it is a daunting task to investigate all of the funds. Therefore we have put together a summary of some things to help in that investigation, as well as a list of funds that we think are good SRI choices. We have even put together a portfolio or two which might work for you.
A mutual fund is a basket of securities which are either managed or not managed and are bought and sold each business day on large trading platforms. Mutual Fund Companies most often offer numerous funds reflecting different parts of the markets i.e. Parnassus Equity Income (Large Cap Value fund), Pax World Growth (Mid-Cap Growth fund) or Domini Pac-Asia Social Equity fund (Large International fund) just to name a few. Therefore, first you need to decide what area of the market in which to invest and then pick the fund.
There are a number of important things to consider when picking the fund but the three that are essential to know are:
- Cost – expense ratio of each fund. Every fund has an expense ration which is made up of the managers fees, trading cost and distribution cost
- Manager – who, how long. record
- Performance over 1, 3, 5, 10 years.
Some SRI Mutual Fund Families:
- Appleseed Fund
- Ariel Funds
- Calvert Funds
- CRA Qualified investment fund
- Domini funds
- Green Century Funds
- MMA Praxis
- Parnassus Funds
- Pax World
- Sentinel Funds
- Walden Fund
- Winslow Funds
Just to name a few!
Two Example Mutual Fund Portfolios
Small Portfolio- $10,000 or less
- Pax World Balance Fund
Larger Portfolio – 50,000
- Domini Social bond Fund (DSBFX) $10,000
- CRA Qualified Investment (CRAIX) 5,000
- Parnassus Equity Income (PRBLX) 10,000
- Calvert Large Cap Growth (CLGAX) 10,000
- Appleseed Fund (APPLX) 5,000
- Domini Pac Asia Social Equity Fund (DPAFX) 10,000