Jason Kephart

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

Keeping it simple has been anything but stupid.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Their benchmarks lack honor.

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

Introducing the Morningstar Style Box for alternative funds.

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

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

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

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

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

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