Reports of the death of the no-load fund are greatly exaggerated. It's true that a shakeout has taken place: Some mediocre fund families turned to brokers for help when they couldn't attract the assets they desired by selling shares directly to investors. Others made a quick buck by selling out to firms that charge commission. Either way, it meant instituting sales charges and new layers of fees. But if you insist on good value from a fund, you still have many choices. Consider this buyer's guide to the best no-load fund families your chance to reorient your investments as the stock market emerges from it's three-year slump.

Why our affection for no-load funds? We don't think you should overpay for a home or a new car, and the same applies to a mutual fund. Sales fees that skim 5.5% off the top and annual expenses top-heavy with 1% 12b-1 fees do nothing to improve the return you receive. Rather, they go into the pockets of brokers, planners or the fund's management company. If you make your own investment decisions, you should almost always take the no-load path.

In crafting our list of the best no-load families, we looked for firms that have produced consistently superior performance over the long haul. Because even no-load firms have to make a living, we also took into account fund operating expenses. We separated the winners into two groups: the megamalls, where you can buy almost anything, and the mom-and-pop stores. Among the smaller shops are those that hire star managers and give them a wide berth, and firms that build a stable of talent and focus on their own proven investment process.

The megamalls

With more than $760 billion under management, Fidelity, the largest U.S. fund company, is a high-pressure firm with loads of swagger. But beneath the surface, the Boston-based giant has become much more conventional in recent years. Whereas Fidelity's managers previously had a lot of freedom and made big bets on hunches, they are now more predictable. Consequently, instead of top-of-the-pack results that many Fidelity stock funds once produced, most now generate merely above-average returns. But the firm's more cautious approach also makes it much harder for Fidelity customers to stumble into a disastrous performer -- although Fidelity has never waited long to fix a problem fund. Fidelity's bond funds are decent, and fund expenses are below average.

The company usually hires industry analysts straight out of college and inculcates them in Fidelity's stock-picking methods and values. Analysts and managers who don't produce don't last long at Fidelity.

Best bets: Capital & Income, Contrafund, Convertible Securities, Dividend Growth, Independence, Real Estate, Small Cap Stock.
Underachievers: Aggressive Growth, Focused Stock, OTC and many overseas funds.

Hard on Fidelity's heels in total assets is Vanguard. Under founder John Bogle, Vanguard gained renown for rock-bottom costs. Its fees are so low because Vanguard is not run for profit. The minimal expenses make Vanguard the family of choice for index funds and bond funds. Vanguard, which has nearly $620 billion under management, needn't take big risks to beat its peers; it merely has to avoid making mistakes.

Call it hubris, but there's a sense among Vanguard's brass that if you invest elsewhere, you just don't know any better. Their view on investments is simple: Hardly anyone can beat the market on a consistent basis, so there's no point in trying. Just match the market by investing in the lowest-cost index funds available -- and that means Vanguard.

Bogle's successor, John Brennan, hasn't made huge changes. One of his goals is to upgrade Vanguard's actively managed funds. Vanguard contracts with private money managers to run almost all of them, but despite low expenses, most are only average performers.

Best bets: Most index funds, especially 500 Index, Total Bond Market, Total Stock Market, and nearly all bond funds. Among actively managed funds, Capital Opportunity, Health Care, Primecap.
Underachievers: Dividend Growth, U.S. Growth.

Lacking the tensions of Fidelity and the pretensions of Vanguard, the offices of T. Rowe Price in Baltimore have the feel of an old-line family business. Executives stress ethical behavior and a harmonious working environment. Chief investment officer David Testa brags about how few Price professionals have been divorced. "We want people to work hard, but we don't want them to burn out," he says.

In the late 1990s, when hard-charging growth investing appeared to be the only way to fame and fortune, Price seemed a quaint backwater. But look who's laughing now. It's not that Price's more aggressive funds, such as Blue Chip Growth, didn't suffer big losses in the bear market. But compared with their rivals, Price funds, with $87 billion in assets, have held up well. The reason: Price managers invest in companies with growing earnings but try to buy their stocks at fair prices. Price funds aim for -- and usually deliver -- consistent, above-average results.

Best Bets: Capital Appreciation, Equity Income, Growth Stock, Mid-Cap Growth.
Underachievers: Dividend Small-Cap Growth, Value.

The contractors

Andrew Ziegler chose an apt name, Artisan Partners, when he launched his firm in 1995. His strategy has been to hire a small number of savvy, veteran managers, make them partners in the business, and give them free rein to manage their funds. "We want category killers," says Ziegler.

Management of the seven funds, which contain nearly $20 billion, is scattered across three cities. That's because Ziegler, who works from Artisan's Milwaukee headquarters, strives to keep the talent happy. The managers are also well paid, which is one reason that the funds tend to have above-average fees.

Best Bets: International, International Small Cap, Mid-Cap Value.
Underachievers: None.

Harbor, with more than $12 billion, contracts with outside managers to run all of its funds. CEO Dave Van Hooser insists on hiring managers with above-average track records over long periods. "You have to have at least a ten-year record to know that someone is really good and not just lucky," Van Hooser says. That long-term perspective is undoubtedly the reason Harbor has retained Spiros Segalas, the longtime manager of Capital Appreciation, despite weak results between 2000 and 2002. Harbor's prize manager is Pimco's Bill Gross, who runs Harbor Bond fund. Bond, like most of Harbor's funds, benefits from low expenses.

Best Bets: Bond, Capital Appreciation, International, Small Cap Growth.
Underachiever: International Growth.

The Masters' Select funds have contracted with some of the marquee names in money management, including Artisan International's Mark Yockey, Harbor's Segalas, Legg Mason's Bill Miller, and Selected American Shares's Chris Davis. Masters' four stock funds, with a combined $1 billion in assets, come with a couple of twists. Each employs between four and six managers, who individually specialize in different types of stocks. Ken Gregory, the developer of the Masters' funds, asks each manager to contribute up to 15 of his best stock picks. "The best stock pickers' best stocks will do best over the long run," says Gregory, who is also a columnist for this magazine.

Masters' Select Equity makes an attractive one-fund stock portfolio. The firm's new Smaller Companies fund also looks promising. Its stock pickers include, among others, Brandywine's William D'Alonzo (see below) and FPA Capital's Robert Rodriguez.

Best Bets: Equity, International, Smaller Companies.
Underachievers: None.

The mom-and-pop shops

Can a firm that offers only three funds be a great family? We think so, when the firm is Brandywine, which has a long and distinguished record investing in rapidly growing companies.

Brandywine has always been a little quirky. Foster Friess, who ran the funds until early last year, hated long meetings, so he required all participants (excluding himself) to stand during gatherings in his office. His protege and successor, William D'Alonzo, carries on Friess's tradition of emphasizing intense research into the business of any company Brandywine considers. He has also picked up some of Friess's eccentricities. For instance, he refers to himself as Brandywine's "helmsman" rather than chief investment officer.

Both Brandywine fund, which invests in companies of all sizes, and Brandywine Blue, which avoids smaller companies, trade stocks rapidly. (The third fund is sold by advisers.) But D'Alonzo won't bite unless a stock is selling at a reasonable price. Compared with their peers, the funds, with combined assets of $4 billion, have held up reasonably well in bear markets.

Best Bets: Brandywine, Brandywine Blue.
Underachievers: None.

Dodge & Cox is comfortably old-fashioned. The San Francisco-based specialist in bargain-priced stocks started its Balanced fund in 1931, and its Stock fund in 1965. Once an analyst or manager joins Dodge & Cox, it's often a till-death-do-us-part affiliation. "The last time a senior staff member left here, other than by death or retirement, was in 1983," says John Gunn, the funds' president.

The Dodge & Cox teams hunt for stocks of large companies that are out of favor but whose problems appear temporary. The funds make buy and sell decisions by committee and are willing to be patient. "We want companies whose shares we could put in a locked box and not touch for three to five years," says Ken Olivier, a Dodge & Cox fund manager.

Dodge & Cox's four funds -- it also offers a foreign-stock fund and a bond fund (Income) -- hold $27 billion in assets. The funds' expense ratios are almost Vanguard-like -- just 0.54% annually for Stock, for example.

Best Bets: Balanced, Income, Stock.
Underachievers: None.

There's more to Memphis than Elvis and barbecue: It's also home to Longleaf Partners. Longleaf is another firm that buys beaten-down stocks -- though theirs are not quite as pulverized as the ones that Dodge & Cox delights in. The funds' managers, all disciples of Warren Buffett, search for strong, shareholder-friendly concerns whose stocks sell at less than 60% of what they reckon the companies are worth. And they're not afraid to make big bets: The three Longleaf funds hold only 20 to 25 stocks apiece.

Staley Cates, one of the managers, compares running a fund to coaching sports. "Plenty of people can draw up a game plan," he says. "What counts is the execution." All three Longleaf funds, with combined assets of $7.4 billion, have executed beautifully, holding up especially well during the recent bear market.

Best Bets: International, Partners. (Small Cap is closed to new investors.)
Underachievers: None.

Chicago-based Oakmark employs many of the same techniques as Longleaf, with similar success. Oakmark values companies on their cash-generating abilities and on the going prices for similar companies involved in takeovers or mergers. Although both firms specialize in cheap stocks, Oakmark's managers tend to care a bit more about earnings growth.

Oakmark hires experienced analysts who are committed to value investing and "who have something to prove," says Robert Levy, president of the Oakmark funds. "People here are passionate about winning." Among them is star manager William Nygren, who runs both Oakmark fund and Oakmark Select (the latter is closed to new investors). The product line consists of just seven stock funds with assets of $13 billion.

Best Bets: Equity and Income, International, International Small Cap, Oakmark. Underachievers: None.

Second Team | The ten runners-up

Wondering why your favorite fund family didn't make the A-list? Here are some of the runners-up, and the reasons we left them out.

American Century. Just missed the top-ten list. It has a decent lineup of choices in a wide variety of areas. Performance of its growth funds, though, has been uneven.

Baron. Funds have delivered above-average results, but Ron Baron's run-ins with regulators give us pause.

Gabelli. Didn't make the cut because there are better choices among families that specialize in bargain-priced stocks.

Janus. Staff departures and other turmoil have created too much uncertainty.

Legg Mason. Its funds are technically not no-loads.

Marsico. Compared with rivals, Tom Marsico has done a fine job investing in fast-growing large companies. But expenses are on the high side, and asset growth could be a problem.

Pimco. Sells mostly load funds, but D shares are available as no-loads through discount brokers. Pimco has great bond funds led by star manager Bill Gross, but stock funds are uninspiring.

Royce. Just misses the top ten -- asset growth is problematic.

Strong. The bear market brutalized many of its stock funds. Some of its bond funds have stumbled, too.

Wasatch. Might have made the top ten had it not closed nearly all of its U.S. stock funds to new investors.

--Reporter: Alison Stevenson

Steady Eddies | All-weather funds that outpace their rivals

It Pays to be Consistent

A mutual fund that makes money in any kind of environment -- the so-called all-weather fund -- is a product of the fertile imagination of newsletter writers and fund marketers. Trust us: Making money in both bull and bear markets is as easy as finding a slot machine that favors the gamblers.

Instead, look for funds that consistently beat their peers. Such funds don't have to rely on market timing, a stunt that few can get right on a regular basis, or on the similarly risky tactic of sharply shifting focus -- investing in small, rapidly growing companies one moment, bargain-priced behemoths the next.

We've identified eight no-load funds that merit the all-weather label. Each finished in the top half of its style group in each of the past five one-year periods ended May 31.

Big-company specialists

Janus has had plenty of problems of late. One fund that has held up better than most is Janus Growth & Income. Manager David Corkins favors large, financially strong companies that he thinks can exceed Wall Street's earnings forecasts. Despite double-digit losses in 2000, 2001 and 2002, over the past five years the fund beat the average of its peer group by six percentage points per year.

The five managers at Vanguard Primecap try to snare the stocks of large, fast-growing companies while they're out of favor. A heavy stake in technology led to a 25% loss in 2002. Still, the fund's annualized return of 5% over the past five years beats the average of its peers by eight percentage points per year.

Of funds that invest in cheap, large-company stocks, Dodge & Cox Stock and Fidelity Equity Income make fine choices. Dodge & Cox searches for stocks that look cheap by such measures as price to earnings or price to cash flow. It has had just two down years since 1981. Fidelity Equity Income, run since 1993 by Stephen Petersen, invests mostly in larger companies whose stocks deliver above-average yields. The fund was slightly in the black over the past five years, outpacing its peer group by about one percentage point per year.

Down the size spectrum

Since 1995, Meridian Value's first full year, the fund has delivered double-digit gains every year except 2002. Over the past five years, its annualized 15% return is 11 points per year better than the average of funds that invest in midsize companies, using a cross between value and growth styles. "We like stocks that have been having problems for a while," says co-manager Richard Aster. Pennsylvania Mutual was the only other small-company fund to meet our consistency standards.

Outstanding overseas

Two foreign-stock funds, Julius Baer International Equity A and William Blair International Growth N, make the grade. Baer's Rudolph-Riad Younes and Richard Pell look for reasonably priced companies that are increasing market share. The fund's five-year annualized return of 6% is 11 percentage points per year better than the average of diversified foreign-stock funds. Blair's W. George Greig will consider firms of any size as long as they have solid finances and above-average earnings growth. The Blair fund has beaten its rivals by 11 points per year, on average, over the past five years. Both funds levy small redemption fees that disappear after a few months.

--Courtney McGrath