Mutual funds have become the last, best hope for getting rich. With more than 1,000 mutual funds for sale in Canada, the investor’s problem is finding the tiny minority of funds that combine strong, dependable returns, acceptable levels of risk, reasonable management fees, acceptable or zero sales fees, and are tax efficient.

This massive book can help. Unlike other guides such as Gordon Pape’s 1998 Buyer’s Guide to Mutual Funds and Duff Young’s Fund Monitor 1998, the Southam publication is comprehensive. Virtually every mutual fund and insurance industry segregated fund (like a mutual fund, but with a money back guarantee subject to conditions) is reviewed. For the investor who knows how to shop the data, Southam’s book is invaluable.

Data for each fund includes: a review of each of 10 years of performance ending with the third quarter of 1997 (we assume updates to be forthcoming), and (for the same end period) the median for the type of fund, relative rank within a group of like funds, distributions of capital gains, and interest or dividends minimum investment, sales fees and how charged, RRSP qualification, management fees, and relative diversification. There is no advice or evaluation of funds. At the back is a list of members of the Canadian Association of Financial Planners, one of the organizations attempting to bring accreditation and regulation to the currently unregulated business of telling others how to invest.

The Southam Canadian Mutual Fund Guide 1998 gives a book reader a database of the same size, though not quite the same timeliness, as users of monthly mutual fund data disks published by Porfolio Analytics, Bell Charts, and Globe HySales. At the back of the book is an ad for Southam’s data disks – a year’s worth is $249.99 plus tax. The book compilation is a major contribution to fund research, but the professional mutual fund researcher or advisor will use disks. In a field in which portfolio managers’ careers and investors’ fortunes soar or plummet with each day’s market results, it is vital to be up to date.