Q: What is your opinion of the McElvaine Value fund? Is it a good investment? Which class is available to me as I am with a full service advisor who usually only can buy Class A funds.
5i Research Answer:
The fund has a since inception (1996) return of 8.05%, and a 10-year return of 10.23%. It ranks 1st quartile across all time periods. Like most funds it lost money in 2018 (17.8%) but went against the grain and made money in 2022 (5.56%). For the mutual fund category (focused small/mid cap) we would consider it a decent fund. We do have a hard time accepting the fee, with an MER of 2.46% (class B). If buying through an advisor we think they could only buy Class A. This would have a lower fee, but then one would add the advisor fee. If in another account then the other classes could be bought. Class B is 'do it yourself'. To put the fee impact in perspective, a Canadian small cap ETF XCS has a fee of 0.60% and its 10-year return is 14.06%.