Crisis in the Rearview Mirror: Monitoring Mutual Funds in the Five Year Window

March marked the first month that the impact of extreme down markets of the Financial Crisis faded out of 5 year fund performance histories. With the darkest days of 2008 and Q1 2009 removed from 5 year track records and associated risk measures, significant shake-ups are being felt in many DC fund “scorecards”, investment policy reviews and other fund rating systems. Wealth managers and investors should be aware of these changes as they review funds that may rank very differently than they did only a few months ago.

The post-Crisis period from 2009-2013, is a unique period in financial markets. It was witness to unprecedented global government intervention, compressed rates and spreads, volatility and dispersion within asset classes. Since the market’s bottom in March 2009, however, most asset prices have rebounded strongly.