Mutual fund firms with target-date products yesterday learned their latest ratings from Morningstar. The Chicago-based investment research firm unveiled its updated target-fund family ratings and reports for the fourth quarter of 2010.

Among the changes: Morningstar lowered its overall rating on Fidelity's Freedom Funds from above average to average. Meanwhile, TIAA-CREF and MassMutual saw an improvement in their ratings.

Of the Fidelity Freedom Funds, Morningstar officials said: "We lowered the rating in the parent company category because recent hiring and organization changes have not resulted in better performance, and we continue to see high manager turnover."

As for TIAA-CREF, the New York firm moved from average to above average due to "a greater share of assets in its cheapest share class as well as improved target-date transparency," according to Morningstar.

MassMutual moved from below average to average due to the gradual improvement in its portfolio quality and performance.

Morningstar assigned ratings on a total of 21 target-date fund families.

Morningstar's Target-Date Family Ratings Fund Family 12/31/2010 Overall Rating Vanguard Target Retirement Series Top T. Rowe Price Retirement Series Top American Funds Target Date Retirement Series Top JPMorgan SmartRetirement Series Above Average Wells Fargo Advantage DJ Target Date Series Above Average American Century Livestrong Series Above Average TIAA-CREF Lifecycle Series Above Average Vantagepoint Milestone Series Above Average ING Solution Series Average MFS Lifetime Series Average Fidelity Freedom Series Average Fidelity Advisor Freedom Series Average BlackRock LifePath Series Average Schwab Target Series Average John Hancock Lifecycle Series Average Principal LifeTime Series Average MassMutual Destination Series Average Putnam RetirementReady Series Below Average DWS LifeCompass Series Below Average Oppenheimer LifeCycle Series Bottom AllianceBernstein Retirement Str Series Bottom   Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now CLICK HERE 0.0  Do You Recommend This Story? 1 2 3 4 5 GO TO: MFWire Return to Top