Russel Kinnel: Sometimes fund companies’ best efforts just don’t click for a fund. Even funds with more than a billion dollars can lose the plot. Today, I’ll highlight three large funds that we rate Negative. They might well have some positives, but when summing up People, Process, Parent, and Price, we see a fund more likely to disappoint than meet its goals.
3 Flailing Funds to Avoid
Invesco Active Allocation is one of those funds. Lead manager Alessio de Longis left in March, three years after Jacob Borbidge and Duy Nguyen left. At the same time that managers have been changing, the fund has been shifting strategies. In 2025, the fund tilted allocation toward the US. Then this year, they changed course and moved money overseas. Performance for the past three- and five-year periods is in the bottom quartile as the fund seeks a winning combination.
American Century Global Bond is another fund having a hard time settling down. In 2025, co-CIO and manager John Lovito retired, and manager Simon Chester left. On the plus side, the strategy hasn’t been changing. It’s a typical mix of top-down and bottom-up security selection. Unfortunately, the fund has consistently underperformed peers by a modest amount. Returns are bottom-quartile for the trailing three-, five-, and 10-year periods.
Allspring Asset Allocation is yet another fund that is struggling to find a winning combination of managers and strategy. Three manager departures in the past four years have come at the same time as big strategy changes. In 2025, management moved money into three newly launched Allspring ETFs in a move that boosted high-yield exposure. On the plus side, the fund has at least produced above-average returns so far in 2026. The longer-term results are mediocre.
It’s certainly possible that these funds can find the winning combination, and the changes to People and Process will slow down while performance picks up. But in the meantime, I’d rather bet on more stable teams with clear competitive advantages.
Watch 3 Funds That Focus on Wide-Moat Stocks for more from Russel Kinnel.