Crane Data recently announced the top-performing money funds over 1-year, 5-year and 10-year periods in its latest Money Fund Intelligence newsletter. Our article, "Top MMFs of 2011; Our 3rd Annual MFI Awards," explains, "Below, we recognize some of the top-performing money funds, ranked by total returns, for calendar 2011, as well as the top-ranked funds for the past 5-year and past 10-year periods. We bestow upon these funds our annual Money Fund Intelligence Awards."
The January 2012 MFI continues, "On page 5, we show a table with the winners. These include the No. 1-ranked fund based on 1-year, 5-year and 10-year returns, through Dec. 31, 2011, in each of our major fund categories (our "Type") -- Prime Institutional, Government Institutional, Treasury Institutional, Prime Individual, Government Individual, and Treasury Individual."
The article says, "The top-performing Taxable funds overall in 2011 and among Prime Institutional funds were Fidelity Instit MM: MM Port Inst (FNSXX) and Flex-funds Money Market Inst (FFIXX), both of which returned 0.20%. Among Prime Retail funds, Flex-funds Money Market Retail (FFMXX) had the best return in 2011 (0.11%). SEI Daily Inc Trust Gov A (SEOXX) and DWS CAT Govt Cash Inst (DBBXX) tied for the Top Government Institutional fund over a 1-year period with returns of 0.05%, while Selected Daily Govt Fund D (SGDXX) won the MFI Award for Government Retail Money Funds (1-year return). BlackRock Cash Treas MMF Cap (BCYXX) ranked No. 1 in the Treasury Institutional class; Invesco Treasury Private (TPFXX) ranked tops among Treasury Retail funds."
Crane Data describes the "Top Funds Over Past Five Years, "For the 5-year period through December 2011, Touchstone Inst MMF again took top honors for the best-performing money fund with a return of 2.01%. Fidelity Select MM Portfolio ranks No. 1 among Prime Retail funds with an annualized return of 1.77%. Goldman's FGTXX and GSOXX again ranked No. 1 among Govt Inst and Treasury Retail funds. Vanguard Federal again ranked No. 1 among Govt Retail funds, and Vanguard Admiral Treasury ranked No. 1 over 5-years' performance among Treasury Inst money funds."
Under "Best Money Funds of the Decade," MFI comments, "The highest-performers of the past decade list continues to include: DWS Daily Assets Fund Inst (DAFXX), which returned 2.21% (No. 1 overall and first among Prime Inst); TIAA CREF MM Fund Retail (TIRXX), which returned 2.07% (the highest among Prime Retail); American Beacon US Govt Select (AAOXX), which returned 2.01%, (No. 1 among Govt Inst funds); and, Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund (VMFXX), which ranked No. 1 among Govt Retail funds. Milestone Treasury Obligs Fin (MIL01) returned the most among Treasury Institutional funds over the past 10 years; and, Goldman Sachs FS Trs Obl Sel (GSOXX) ranked No. 1 among Treasury Retail funds."
Finally, the article adds, "See our additional rankings tables on pages 7-9, and see our Money Fund Intelligence XLS for more detailed listings, percentiles, and rankings.... Winners will receive a letter and certificate stating their No. 1 ranking and the criteria used."
