In early March, Standard & Poors and BusinessWeek, both units of The McGraw-Hill Companies, and Lipper, a Reuters company, announced the winners of their respective mutual fund awards. This is the second year of existence for both programs, and between the two, a total of 119 different funds were recognized.
The Standard & Poors/BusinessWeek Excellence in Fund Management Awards recognize outstanding fund managers who not only consistently outperform their peers, but have embraced transparency in their management and trading practices as well. According to the sponsor, these awards were developed to provide investors with a longer-term perspective on mutual funds. Rather than strictly looking at the numbers, the selection criteria incorporates a number of qualitative factors such as the experience of the management team, adherence to stated objectives, and ability to keep expenses low. Of the almost 16,000 funds tracked in the S&P database, nine mutual fund managers or management teams were identified as being "Best in Class" for demonstrating "exceptional levels of leadership, embracing transparency in their management, and consistently outperforming their peers" over the last five years. The nine winners are:
John Calamos and Nick Calamos, Calamos Growth & Income Fund (in the specialty bond category)
Daniel Boone III, Calvert Social Investment Fund: Equity/A (large-cap blend);
William Fries, Thornburg Value Fund/A (large-cap blend);
Bill Miller and Nancy Dennin, Legg Mason Value Trust Fund (large-cap blend);
the team at Growth Fund of America (large-cap growth)
Philip Barach, Jeffrey Gundlach, and Frederick Horton, TCW Galileo Total Return Bond Fund (fixed-income mortgage asset-backed)
