SOLID RETURNS IN A REMARKABLE MARKET

Our diversified stock funds did well but lagged a highly concentrated S&P 500. Our foreign fund picks beat their benchmark, as did our bond funds.

-  BY NELLIE S. HUANG

IN 2004, when we inaugurated the Kiplinger 25 list of our favorite actively managed no-load funds, the Boston Red Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years. Fast-forward two decades, and the Red Sox have missed the Major League playoffs for three straight seasons. Winning isn't guaranteed, and change, it seems, is a mainstay.

Over the years, the Kiplinger 25 has undergone several shifts. Sometimes we swap out as many as four funds on the list; other times, fewer. In this year's annual review of the Kip 25, we're making just one change to the roster, in the small-company fund category-though we're eyeing alternatives in other areas, too.

We're replacing T. Rowe Price Integrated U.S. Small-Cap Growth Equity with Oberweis Small-Cap Opportunities. Price's quantitative investing wizard Sudhir Nanda, who ran Integrated U.S. Small-Cap Growth, retired in 2024. So we're taking the opportunity to shift into a higher gear with a fund that's a little more aggressive. The fund's fee is higher, too, but so are its returns.

We summarize each of the Kiplinger 25 funds on the following pages, and in most cases we try to provide some guidance for what role each fund can best play in your portfolio. That said, we want to be clear: The Kip 25 itself is not meant to be a portfolio. Rather, pick and choose from among the funds to diversify and round out your portfolio where needed. And remember, the Kip 25 roster should be a starting point for your own research.