Note: Beginning with the December 14, 2005 release, Morningstar calculates Morningstar Ratings, risk-adjusted returns, Morningstar risk and Morningstar return figures, after-tax return figures, and percentile ranks for load-waived A shares. For more information, see the press release and fact sheet on Morningstar's corporate Web site.
Current month-end total returns, adjusted for front-end loads, deferred loads, and redemption fees. These returns are not adjusted for taxes. When comparing figures, keep in mind that load-adjusted returns as of quarter-end are also listed for FINRA purposes.
For funds with front-end loads, the full amount of the load is deducted. For deferred loads, the percentage charged often declines the longer the shares are held. This charge, often coupled with a 12b-1 fee, usually disappears entirely after several years. Morningstar adjusts the deferred load accordingly when making this calculation.
For funds that have returns since inception available, Morningstar provides an annualized load-adjusted return figure for the period since the fund's inception.
|
FAQ - Why is the return since inception figure missing for my investment? Morningstar only has load-adjusted returns since inception dating back to 1974. Therefore, if an investment has an inception date prior to 1974, this figure is not available.
|
Origin
Total returns are calculated using NAVs, dividends, and capital gains. See the definition of Total Return for the methodology we use to calculate total returns.
Load-adjusted Return Formula
Morningstar defines mutual fund load-adjusted return as the holding period return where a shareholder invests money at the beginning of the period, pays all applicable loads and redemption fees, and completely liquidates the investment at the end of the period. There are several minor variations in how different fund families actually apply their loads and fees. We believe, however, that our method is the most common method used.
Assumptions:
The deferred load is not assessed on shares purchased with reinvested distributions.
The deferred load is assessed on the lesser of the beginning value of the investment (after adjusting for any front load), or the ending value of the original shares purchased.
The redemption fee is assessed on the ending value of the investment before any deferred load adjustments are made.
The redemption fee is charged only if the holding period is less than the minimum redemption fee period. In other words, if the redemption period is 90 days and the holding period is 180 days, the redemption fee is NOT assessed, even if there is a reinvestment of distribution within the 90 days prior to liquidation.
The formula we use for calculate load-adjusted returns is:
Where:
TR = holding period total return (distributions reinvested)
FL = front load
DL = deferred load
RF = redemption fee
BN = Beginning NAV
EN = Ending NAV
Min = minimum operator (choose the smaller of the two alternatives)
Note: Morningstar load-adjusted return differs from the SEC return in the following ways:
Morningstar load-adjusted return may not include all recurring fees, such as account maintenance fees, that are charged to shareholder accounts. The only recurring fees included in the Morningstar calculation are those reflected by a fund’s NAV.
Morningstar load-adjusted return assumes that no sales load is imposed on the reinvestment of distributions.