A Value Investor's Bond Fund

Brian Moriarty: Pioneer Bond is a value investor's bond fund. This Bronze-rated fund has the flexibility to invest across a variety of asset classes including Treasuries and mortgages, all the way out to bank loans and high-yield corporate bonds. This means that although the fund is designed to be a core fixed-income offering, it may occasionally be more aggressive than peers.

More importantly, those allocations will change over time. For example, the fund posted a positive return during the 2008 financial crisis by increasing its stake in agencies and Treasuries to over 70% of the total portfolio. Coming out of the crisis it shifted gears and invested in bank loans and high-yield corporate bonds and beat roughly 75% of peers in 2009. Long-term returns are attractive as well. Compared to the intermediate-term bond category, the fund has beat roughly 80% of peers over the trailing five, 10, and 15 years.

The fund is managed by Ken Taubes and Charles Melchreit. Taubes has been manager since 1998 and Melchreit, who has 30 years of investment experience, joined him in 2012. While the price tag is only average, the managers are experienced and they have guided this fund to impressive long-term returns.