In addition to its normal 1-year return and 7-day yield performance ranking tables, the January issue of our monthly newsletter recognizes some of the top-performing money funds of 2009 and of the past decade with the newly created Money Fund Intelligence Awards. The winners include the No. 1-ranked money market funds based on 1-year, 5-year and 10-year returns, through Dec. 31, 2009, in a number of categories.
The top-performing fund overall (again) in 2009 and among Prime Institutional funds was Touchstone Institutional Money Market Fund (TINXX) with a return of 1.07%. Among Prime Retail funds, USAA Money Market Fund (USAXX) had the best return in 2009 (0.84%). RBC US Govt MMF Inst 1 (TUGXX) was the top Government Institutional fund over 1-year with a return of 0.51%, while Vanguard Federal MMF (VMFXX) won the MFI Award for Government Retail Money Funds over 1-year. Vanguard's Admiral Treasury MM (VUSXX) ranked No. 1 in the Treasury Institutional class while Goldman Sachs FS Treasury Oblig Select (GSOXX) ranked first among Treasury Retail funds.
For the 5-year period through December 2009, Touchstone Inst MMF again took top honors for the best-performing money fund over the past 5 years with a return of 3.53%. Fidelity Select MM Portfolio ranks No. 1 among Prime Retail funds with an annualized return of 3.30%. Goldman's FGTXX and GSOXX ranked No. 1 among Govt Inst and Treasury Retail funds, and Vanguard Federal again ranked No. 1 among Govt Retail funds. BlackRock Cash Treasury MMF Inst (the former Barclays fund) ranked No. 1 over 5-years among Treasury Inst money funds.
The highest-performers of the past decade include: DWS Daily Assets Fund Inst (DAFXX), which returned 3.24% (No. 1 overall and first among Prime Inst); TIAA CREF MM Fund Retail (TIRXX), which returned 3.09% (the highest among Prime Retail); and, AIM STIT Govt & Agency Inst (AIM04), American Beacon US Govt Select (AAOXX), and JPMorgan US Govt Capital (OGVXX) all returned 3.03%, (so tied for No. 1 among Govt Inst funds). AIM STIT Treasury Inst (AIM03) returned the most among Treasury Institutional funds over the past 10 years; and, Wells Fargo Advantage Treasury Plus Admin (WTPXX) ranked No. 1 among Treasury Retail funds.
For the period ended Dec. 31, 2009, our Crane 100 Money Fund Index returned 0.31% over 1-year, 2.57% 3.08% over 5 years and 2.90% over 10 years. See our latest Money Fund Intelligence XLS for more detailed listings, percentiles, and rankings, and look for more Money Fund Intelligence Awards in coming days.
