Morningstar announced Thursday that it had updated its target-date fund family ratings and reports for the first quarter of 2011.
Topping the rating list were fund families run by Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, JPMorgan and American Funds. At the bottom were AllianceBernstein and Oppenheimer.
Changes over the quarter included the upgrade of JPMorgan SmartRetirement to a Top rating and Morningstar's initiation of coverage on State Farm LifePath, a clone of BlackRock LifePath, which checks in with a Below Average Rating.
"JPMorgan has been one of the most consistent performers we cover, and its recent stewardship upgrade on corporate culture was enough to move it over the fence," Morningstar said in a news release. "State Farm gets a lower rating than BlackRock due to high expenses and some poorer ratings in stewardship areas, including Transparency."
