What Is a Mutual Fund?

A mutual fund is a type of financial vehicle made up of a pool of money collected from many investors to invest in securities such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments, and other assets. Mutual funds are operated by professional money managers, who allocate the fund's assets and attempt to produce capital gains or income for the fund's investors. A mutual fund's portfolio is structured and maintained to match the investment objectives stated in its prospectus.

Mutual funds give small or individual investors access to professionally managed portfolios of equities, bonds and other securities. Each shareholder, therefore, participates proportionally in the gains or losses of the fund. Mutual funds invest in a vast number of securities, and performance is usually tracked as the change in the total market cap of the fund—derived by the aggregating performance of the underlying investments.

The Basics of a Mutual Fund

Mutual funds pool money from the investing public and use that money to buy other securities, usually stocks and bonds. The value of the mutual fund company depends on the performance of the securities it decides to buy. So, when you buy a unit or share of a mutual fund, you are buying the performance of its portfolio or more precisely, a part of the portfolio's value.
That's why the price of a mutual fund share is referred to as the net asset value (NAV) per share, sometimes expressed as NAVPS. A fund's NAV is derived by dividing the total value of the securities in the portfolio by the total amount of shares outstanding. Outstanding shares are those held by all shareholders, institutional investors, and company officers or insiders. Mutual fund shares can typically be purchased or redeemed as needed at the fund's current NAV, which—unlike a stock price—doesn't fluctuate during market hours, but is settled at the end of each trading day.

The average mutual fund holds hundreds of different securities, which means mutual fund shareholders gain important diversification at a low price. Consider an investor who buys only Google stock before the company has a bad quarter. He stands to lose a great deal of value because all of his dollars are tied to one company. On the other hand, a different investor may buy shares of a mutual fund that happens to own some Google stock. When Google has a bad quarter, she only loses a fraction as much because Google is just a small part of the fund's portfolio.

Key Takeaways

1. A mutual fund is a type of investment vehicle consisting of a portfolio of stocks, bonds or other securities.
2. Mutual funds give small or individual investors access to diversified, professionally managed portfolios at a low price.
3. Mutual funds are divided into several kinds of categories, representing the kinds of securities they invest in, their investment objectives, and the type of returns they seek.
4. Mutual funds charge annual fees (called expense ratios) and, in some cases, commissions, which can affect their overall returns.
5. The overwhelming majority of money in employer-sponsored retirement plans goes into mutual funds.

How Mutual Funds Work

A mutual fund is both an investment and an actual company. This dual nature may seem strange, but it is no different from how a share of AAPL is a representation of Apple, Inc. When an investor buys Apple stock, he is buying part ownership of the company and its assets. Similarly, a mutual fund investor is buying part ownership of the mutual fund company and its assets. The difference is that Apple is in the business of making smartphones and tablets, while a mutual fund company is in the business of making investments.

If a mutual fund is a virtual company, its CEO is the fund manager, sometimes called its investment adviser. The fund manager is hired by a board of directors and is legally obligated to work in the best interest of mutual fund shareholders. Most fund managers are also owners of the fund.
There are very few other employees in a mutual fund company. The investment adviser or fund manager may employ some analysts to help pick investments or perform market research. A fund accountant is kept on staff to calculate the fund's NAV, the daily value of the portfolio that determines if share prices go up or down. Mutual funds need to have a compliance officer or two, and probably an attorney, to keep up with government regulations.

Most mutual funds are part of a much larger investment company; the biggest have hundreds of separate mutual funds. Some of these fund companies are names familiar to the general public, such as Fidelity Investments, the Vanguard Group, T. Rowe Price, and Oppenheimer Funds.

Types of Mutual Funds

Mutual funds are divided into several kinds of categories, representing the kinds of securities they have targeted for their portfolios and the type of returns they seek.

Equity Funds

The largest category is that of equity or stock funds. As the name implies, this sort of fund invests principally in stocks. Within this group is various sub-categories. Some equity funds are named for the size of the companies they invest in small-, mid- or large-cap. Others are named by their investment approach: aggressive growth, income-oriented, value, and others. Equity funds are also categorized by whether they invest in domestic (U.S.) stocks or foreign equities.

Fixed-Income Funds

Another big group is the fixed income category. A fixed income mutual fund focuses on investments that pay a set rate of return, such as government bonds, corporate bonds, or other debt instruments. The idea is that the fund portfolio generates interest income, which then passes on to shareholders.

Index Funds

Another group, which has become extremely popular in the last few years, falls under the moniker "index funds." Their investment strategy is based on the belief that it is very hard, and often expensive, to try to beat the market consistently. So, the index fund manager buys stocks that correspond with a major market index such as the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). This strategy requires less research from analysts and advisors, so there are fewer expenses to eat up returns before they are passed on to shareholders. These funds are often designed with cost-sensitive investors in mind.

Balanced Funds

Balanced funds invest in both stocks and bonds to reduce the risk of exposure to one asset class or another. Another name for this type of mutual fund is "asset allocation fund." An investor may expect to find the allocation of these funds among asset classes relatively unchanging, though it will differ among funds. This fund's goal is asset appreciation with lower risk. However, these funds carry the same risk and can be as subject to fluctuation as other classifications of funds.

There is a fund for nearly every type of investor or investment approach. Other common types of mutual funds include money market funds, sector funds, alternative funds, smart-beta funds, target-date funds, and even funds-of-funds, or mutual funds that buy shares of other mutual funds.

Mutual Fund Fees

A mutual fund will classify expenses into either annual operating fees or shareholder fees. Annual fund operating fees are an annual percentage of the funds under management, usually ranging from 1-3%. Annual operating fees are collectively known as the expense ratio. A fund's expense ratio is the summation of the advisory or management fee and its administrative costs.

Shareholder fees, which come in the form of sales charges, commissions and redemption fees, are paid directly by investors when purchasing or selling the funds. Sales charges or commissions are known as "the load" of a mutual fund. When a mutual fund has a front-end load, fees are assessed when shares are purchased. For a back-end load, mutual fund fees are assessed when an investor sells his shares.

Sometimes, however, an investment company offers a no-load mutual fund, which doesn't carry any commission or sales charge. These funds are distributed directly by an investment company rather than through a secondary party.

Some funds also charge fees and penalties for early withdrawals or selling the holding before a specific time has elapsed. Also, the rise of exchange-traded funds, which have much lower fees thanks to their passive management structure, have been giving mutual funds considerable competition for investors' dollars. Articles in the financial media about how fund expense ratios and loads can eat into rates of return have also stirred negative feelings about mutual funds.

Classes of Mutual Fund Shares

Mutual fund shares come in several classes. Their differences reflect the number and size of fees associated with them.

Currently, most individual investors purchase mutual funds with A shares through a broker. This purchase includes a front-end load of up to 5% or more, plus management fees and ongoing fees for distributions, also known as 12b-1 fees. To top it off, loads on A shares vary quite a bit, which can create a conflict of interest. Financial advisors selling these products may encourage clients to buy higher-load offerings to bring in bigger commissions for themselves. With front-end funds, the investor pays these expenses as they buy into the fund.