Wall Street Journal columnist Chuck Jaffe digs up stories from mutual funds' graves for lessons and legacies that fundsters should remember.

Here are the funds that died in 2011:

Dblaine [see profile] - This firm, managed by David Weilliver, was introduced December 0f 2009 and grew quickly when Weilliver bought Bryce Funds therefore raising its assets. According to the SEC, the manager and the firm concealed from the shareholders the incurred high-interest loans used to purchase Bryce. In addition to that, the fund allegedly valued the private placement at the purchase price even though they were already worthless;

Direxion Airline Shares [profile]- This ETF's life only lasted 11 months and three days, and it crashed with more than 35 percent loss;

FIMCO Select - Run by Frontier Investment Management, Jaffe said this fund that died in 2010 was suffering a serious identity crisis since it could not use "Frontier" as its name because a fund was already named as such;

FaithShares ETFs [profile]- The first of its kind, this fund had specific ETFs for various denominations;

American Beacon Evercore [profile]-- Opened in 2010, this fund gained 17 percent during its fourth quarter but lost as fast as it gained. By the third quarter of 2011, it lost more than 20 percent, which eventually doubled;

Schwab YieldPlus [profile] - In 2007, the $12 billion fund was the largest ultra-short bond fund but was crushed when the U.S. suffered from thze mortgage and financial crisis. 

Edited by: HFD


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