Jason Kephart

Top-rated BlackRock Lifepath Index follows a path worth traveling.

A surprise retirement and our updated methodology lead to a shake-up of series with Morningstar Analyst Ratings of Gold.

Investors within 15 years of retirement pulled more than $9 billion in March.

BlackRock Systematic Multi-Strategy pursues a quantitative strategy and is on our radar.

The performance of liquid alternatives has shown some marginal improvement over the last three years.

Keeping it simple has been anything but stupid.

Manager David Giroux shares a few stock picks and what he thinks of the bond market today.

Gold-rated BlackRock LifePath Index's blend of forward-thinking management, low costs, and high-quality building blocks make it among the industry's best options.

Long-short equity funds should, in theory, help protect against big equity market drawdowns but large players like AQR and Boston Partners were hit hard when value stocks sank last year.

Target-date funds are performing more alike before expenses than in the past, making fee differences even more important in separating good and mediocre performers.

If history repeats itself, saving early can improve your odds of slaying the tuition inflation monster by about a third.

We address some questions about our recent study on liquid alternatives’ performance.

A framework for evaluating the diversification benefits an alternative mutual fund might confer to a traditional portfolio.

The fund net expense ratios Morningstar publishes now include costs from interest and dividend expense, but that won't affect Morningstar Analyst Ratings.

Alternative funds have been liquidating much faster than other groups of funds over the past five years.

JPMorgan SmartRetirement Blend uses passive ETFs, keeping the series costs low.

These multialternative strategies can take some of the guesswork out of the hands of the end investor and offer a more stable ride.

Funds in two defensive categories, managed futures and market neutral, performed differently during the recent volatility.

How our alternative Morningstar Medalists fared in the correction.

Where these funds land in the style box reveals their diversification benefits.

Increased conviction in the team and approach has led to an Fund Analyst Rating upgrade to Silver for Vanguard Strategic Equity.

Valuation plays a key role in selecting stocks to buy and short at this Silver-rated fund, which hurt relative performance last year.

Many long-short equity managers have stock-picking skill, but not enough to clear their high fee hurdles.

Fewer unattractive alts options should help investors focus, says Morningstar's Jason Kephart.

Using the new Morningstar Style Box for alternative funds, we look at funds that have moved the opposite way from global equities over the last three years.

A look at where liquid alternative funds fall in the alternatives style box and what it means for investors.

Poor timing has investor returns lagging in liquid alternatives.

These funds could be a substitute for a portion of an investor’s fixed-income exposure.

Their benchmarks lack honor.

Three ways investors can use the alternatives style box as part of their regular due diligence.

This new framework provides an easy-to-understand visual representation of an alternative fund's diversification and volatility characteristics.

Introducing the Morningstar Style Box for alternative funds.

PIMCO Global StocksPlus & Income is an example of how high premiums can make CEFs sensitive to changes in distribution rates.

Author Gary Antonacci says momentum works best with broad indices and asset classes versus individual stock prices.

Combining low volatility and momentum factors can be beneficial from a diversification perspective, says Craig Lazzara of S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Investors have a right to know how much they pay in fees, but some funds won’t come clean.

Credit Suisse Managed Futures' flexible strategy could make it an interesting choice in a broader portfolio context.

A low-return environment has stifled these pricey funds, and investors would've been better served by a low-fee bond ETF, says Morningstar’s Jason Kephart.

Multistrategy funds of hedge funds have offered retail investors little for their high fees.

Bronze-rated Vanguard US Value's strategy of making small bets based on a five-factor screen has led to benchmark-beating returns over the long term.

In today's uncertain fixed-income and equity markets, a fund that offers noncorrelated exposure can add value to investors' portfolios, says Vanguard's John Ameriks.

January's stock market swoon puts a spotlight on liquid alternatives.

With an impressive pedigree and relative performance in 2015, newcomer Blackstone Alternative Multi-Strategy is one to watch.

Market-neutral funds could be good diversifiers, but most are hindered by high expense ratios.

Bronze-rated John Hancock Global Absolute Return Strategies is super diversified and doesn't rely too heavily on markets going up, which has led to smooth risk-adjusted returns.

This simple trick can help you halve some alternative fund fees.

Bronze-rated BlackRock Global Long/Short Equity has met with success using both traditional factor analysis and big data to predict companies' future returns.

Multistrategy alternative managers weigh in on the pros and cons of using mutual funds to access hedge fund-like returns.

Running global macro strategies, Bronze-rated UBS Dynamic Alpha and MFS Global Alternative Strategies have benefited from currency and equity market volatility.

Investors have swiftly rushed into managed-futures funds this year, but the category isn't out of the woods yet.