Broad Asset Class

Morningstar calculates Fund Family Scores for each of five broad asset classes, based on the current Morningstar category classifications. The five asset classes are U.S. Stock, Balanced, International Stock, Taxable Bond, and Municipal Bond. For each fund family, Morningstar will calculate up to five Fund Family Scores, one for each of the asset classes in which the fund family manages funds.

Categories are assigned to the asset classes as follows:


U.S. Stock

Domestic-equity funds are placed in a category based on the style and size of the stocks they typically own. The style and size parameters are based on the divisions used in the investment style box: Value, Blend, or Growth style and Small, Medium, or Large geometric average capitalization (see Equity Style Box for more details on style methodology). By reviewing their investment style over the past three years, we place domestic-equity funds in one of the following nine categories:

Large Value

Large Blend

Large Growth

Mid-Cap Value

Mid-Cap Blend

Mid-Cap Growth

Small Value

Small Blend

Small Growth

 

Morningstar also includes several other, specialized U.S. stock categories, including:

Bear Market

Long-Short

Specialty Communications

Specialty Financials

Specialty Health

Specialty Natural Resources

Specialty Real Estate

Specialty Technology

Specialty Utilities


Balanced

Conservative Allocation

Convertibles

Moderate Allocation

Target-Date 2000-2014

Target-Date 2015-2029

Target-Date 2030+

World Allocation


International Stock

Equity funds with 40% or more of their equity holdings in foreign stocks (on average over three years) are placed in the international equity class. These categories include:

Diversified Emerging Markets

Diversified Pacific/Asia

Europe Stock

Foreign Stock

Japan Stock

Latin America Stock

Pacific/Asia ex. Japan Stock

Specialty Precious Metals

World Stock


Bonds

Funds with 70% or more of their assets invested in bonds are classified as Bond Funds. Bond funds are divided into two main groups: Taxable Bond and Municipal Bond.


Taxable Bond categories include the following:

Long Government

Intermediate Government

Short Government

Long-Term Bond

Intermediate-Term Bond

Short-Term Bond

Ultrashort Bond

Bank Loan

High-Yield Bond

Multisector Bond

World Bond

Emerging-Markets Bond

Inflation-Protected Bond


Municipal-Bond categories include the following:

Muni National Long

Muni National Intermediate

Muni National Short

High-Yield Muni

Muni Single-State Long

Muni Single-State Intermediate/Short

Muni California Long

Muni California Intermediate/Short

Muni Florida

Muni Massachusetts

Muni Minnesota

Muni New Jersey

Muni New York Long

Muni New York Intermediate/Short

Muni Ohio

Muni Pennsylvania