[colezy9]

Can the makeup of a particular mutual fund change? If so, how often is the makeup of a particular mutual fund reviewed and modified?

 

[leslie]

Managers of mutual funds buy and sell assets every day.

 

[mogul777]

Managers of mutual funds buy and sell assets every day.

True.

And OP read the prospectus... though I fear you have no idea what that is.

 

[colezy9]

True.

And OP read the prospectus... though I fear you have no idea what that is.

Leslie, your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Mogul777, I will be sure to read the prospectus again before signing anything and my FA has read it over to me. My FA probably assumed I understood that mutual funds change daily but I didn't and I didn't think of asking until after. On a side note, does it make you feel smart by coming online and trying to make other people feel stupid? I am relatively new to investing and have done lots of reading but this was unclear to me.

 

[GreatLaker]

As noted upthread, mutual funds may buy & sell daily. Index mutual funds track a specific index, like the S&P500 or TSX Composite, so they tend to have low portfolio turnover. Actively managed funds choose holdings to try to get good performance, but do not track any specific index. Active funds may have low to very high portfolio turnover depending on the manager and the fund mandate.

One potential issue with actively managed mutual funds is they have a vague investment mandate that allows a broad range of holdings and tactics, so the fund may change over time with no requirement to notify investors unless it is a very significant change. If you don`t want the fund manager to have that leeway, consider index mutual funds or ETFs instead.

Mutual funds are required to publish their holdings. I`m not totally sure but I think they must disclose the top 25 holdings every quarter.

You can find the holdings on the fund websites. Look for a document called Fund Facts or for more detail look for the Management Report of Fund Performance (MRFP) which is published on an annual and semi-annual basis. For example the Mawer and Steadyhand fund documents can be seen at these links:
Mawer Mutual Fund Documents - Mawer
Forms and Documents - Steadyhand Investment Funds

Finiki is a great Canadian investing resource:
finiki, the Canadian financial wiki
Getting started - finiki, the Canadian financial wiki

Oh yeah... the mutual fund prospectus does not list holdings.

Edit: I just noticed I replied to a thread from 2009. 😕