Brokerage Specific Core Mutual Fund Portfolios

We have featured brokerage specific mutual fund portfolios for over five years now. You can find these plans and portfolios on Brokerage Investors page or Brokerage Mutual Fund Portfolios. Most of these plans are based on brokerage suggested no load and no transaction fee funds. For example, Schwab OneSource Select List Funds  is constructed using Schwab suggested OneSource Select List funds. These funds are available in Schwab without transaction fees. The list is updated quarterly. Similarly, Fidelity Extended Fund Picks  is based on Fidelity suggested Fund Picks list. Again the list is updated every now and then. 

There are several problems with the portfolios that are based on such dynamic list:

• First, the list is constructed not entirely based on fund performance and expense merits, but also on the relationship between the brokerage and mutual fund companies. These funds can come and go as the business relationship changes, subjecting investors to totally unnecessary burdens to buy and sell a fund that can incur performance loss and/or tax issues. 
• Second, some of these funds are ‘hot’ active managed funds. Every now and then, they are closed to new investors. This creates issues for new investors/users who want to start to follow these portfolios. Furthermore, it also creates issues for existing investors who would like to continue to hold these funds but the model portfolios/plan have been changed due to eliminating the closed fund. 
• Third, again, these funds are not even necessarily the best in terms of performance and cost. 

What we want are