Morningstar on Tuesday released its latest quarterly review of target-date fund family ratings. Two target-date families -- DWS and Schwab -- saw a downgrade, while the other 20 tracked by Morningstar saw no change in their ratings. (see the chart below)

Morningstar lowered its rating for DWS from below average to bottom.

"The DWS LifeCompass target-date series probably won't turn around until the firm behind it does," wrote fund analyst Greg Carlson. He added that the quant team "doesn't have a good menu of in-house funds to choose from" and the LifeCompass funds are "hampered by above-average expense ratios."

The Chicago-based firm cut its rating for Schwab from average to below average, citing the uncertainty created by the sudden departure of the funds' manager, Daniel Kern, in July.

"Schwab had no clear successor in line behind Kern," wrote mutual fund analyst David Falkof in the report. "For now, Schwab's collective trust group is overseeing the series. The team of fund analysts and portfolio managers runs a series of trusts with similar asset-allocation characteristics as the Schwab target-date series. There is, however, little overlap in the portfolio holdings."

A spokesperson for DWS was not immediately able to comment on the Morningstar report. MFWire.com could not immediately reach a Schwab spokesperson for comment.

Morningstar's Target-Date Family Ratings Fund Family 6/30/2011 Overall Rating Vanguard Target Retirement Series Top T. Rowe Price Retirement Series Top American Funds Target Date Retirement Series Top JPMorgan SmartRetirement Series Top TIAA-CREF Lifecycle Series Above Average Wells Fargo Advantage DJ Target Date Series Above Average American Century Livestrong Series Above Average Vantagepoint Milestone Series Above Average MFS Lifetime Series Average Fidelity Freedom Series Average ING Solution Series Average Fidelity Advisor Freedom Series Average John Hancock Lifecycle Series Average MassMutual RetireSMART Series Average BlackRock LifePath Series Average Principal LifeTime Series Average Schwab Target Series Below Average Putnam RetirementReady Series Below Average State Farm LifePath Series Below Average DWS LifeCompass Series Bottom AllianceBernstein Retirement Str Series Bottom Oppenheimer LifeCycle Series Bottom   Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now CLICK HERE 1.0  Do You Recommend This Story? 1 2 3 4 5 GO TO: MFWire Return to Top