The January issue of Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence newsletter, which will be e-mailed to subscribers later this morning, will announce the winners of our MFI Awards, a designation given to the top-performing money market mutual funds for 2012. We also review recent fund news in the article, "Consolidation & Liquidations, Asset Rebound & FSOC Outlook," and feature the profile, "Dechert's Vartanian Says FSOC Jumping the Gun" in our new edition. Finally, we've updated our Money Fund Wisdom database query system with Dec. 31, 2012, performance statistics and rankings, and our MFI XLS will be sent out shortly. (Our Dec. 31 Money Fund Portfolio Holdings are scheduled to go out on Thursday.)
Our piece, "Top MMFs of 2012; Our 4th Annual MFI Awards," says, "In this issue, we once again recognize some of the top-performing money funds, ranked by total returns, for calendar 2012, as well as the top-ranked funds for the past 5-year and past 10-year periods. We present the following funds with our annual Money Fund Intelligence Awards. (See the table on page 6 of MFI for the table with the winners.) These include the No. 1-ranked funds based on 1-year, 5-year and 10-year returns, through Dec. 31, 2012, in each of our major fund categories (our "Type") -- Prime Institutional, Government Institutional, Treasury Institutional, Prime Individual, Government Individual, and Treasury Individual."
MFI says, "The top-performing Taxable funds overall in 2012 and among Prime Institutional funds was Reich & Tang Natixis Liq Prm Port Treas (LQTXX), which returned 0.25%. Among Prime Retail funds, Flex-funds Money Market Retail (FFMXX) again had the best return in 2012 (0.10%). American Beacon US Govt Select (AAOXX) won the Top Government Institutional fund over a 1-year period with a return of 0.09%, while Selected Daily Govt Fund S (SDGXX) won the MFI Award for Government Retail Money Funds (1-year return). BlackRock Cash Treas MMF Inst (BRIXX) ranked No. 1 in the Treasury Institutional class, and Invesco Treasury Private (TPFXX) ranked tops among Treasury Retail funds.
We say about the "Top Funds Over Past Five Years," "For the 5-year period through December 31, 2012, Touchstone Inst MF again took top honors for the best-performing money fund with a return of 1.01%. Fidelity Select MM Port ranks No. 1 among Prime Retail funds with an annualized return of 0.78%. Goldman Sachs FS Govt In (FGTXX) again ranked No. 1 among Govt Institutional funds, while Selected Daily Govt Fund D (SGDXX) ranked No. 1 among Treasury Retail funds over the past 5 years. Vanguard Admiral Treasury ranked No. 1 in 5-year performance among Treasury Institutional money funds, and Invesco Treasury Priv ranked No. 1 among Treasury Retail MM funds."
On the "Best Money Funds of the Decade," MFI comments, "The highest-performers of the past 10 years include: DWS Daily Assets Fund Inst (DAFXX), which returned 2.04% (No. 1 overall and first among Prime Inst); Fidelity Select MM Portfolio (FSLXX), which returned 1.87% (the highest among Prime Retail); American Beacon US Govt Select (AAOXX), which returned 1.85%, (No. 1 among Govt Inst funds); and, Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund (VMFXX), which ranked No. 1 among Govt Retail funds (1.76%). 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."
MFI's Awards piece adds, "See our additional rankings tables on pages 9-11, and see our Money Fund Intelligence XLS for more detailed listings, percentiles, and rankings. Look for more details in coming days on the website too (www.cranedata.com). Winners will receive a letter and certificate stating their No. 1 ranking and the criteria used. The table below shows the No. 1 ranked money funds for each category based on 1-year, 5-year, and 10-year annualized total returns." Watch for more excerpts from MFI and more awards in coming days.
