With the advent of the Internet, most mutual fund companies now offer the same information online that you receive in your printed account statements. In addition, you can access many other types of data and services online, which relieves much of the time and effort involved in doing research via multiple phone calls, letters, or office visits.
For example, at the Vanguard Web site (www.vanguard.com), you can find such information as
- Historical data on how particular funds have performed
- The largest stock or bond holdings of particular funds
- Specific data about your accounts
Most of the things you do over the phone, you can also do online. For example, you can make investment exchanges between funds, request redemptions, and buy shares.
You can also download application forms and fund prospectuses, plus you can locate other literature on Web sites. Typically, you can access marketing brochures, articles on retirement investing, and speeches by officials at the fund company. With each passing month, fund families are offering more and more interesting online perks. You can look forward to finding retirement calculators, reports on the economy, glossaries of investment terms, mini-courses on investment fundamentals, and other services.
Vanguard, for example, offers WebTurboTax tax-return software free to its online shareholders. Many fund Web sites feature message boards and chat rooms where you can share information and questions with other investors or with the company guru who can respond to your inquiries. The Resource Center at the back of this book lists some of the more useful mutual fund Web sites, including those sponsored by fund companies and those established by independent companies or organizations.
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