Please stay tuned for important disclosure information at the conclusion of this episode.

Welcome to Investing Insights. I'm your host, Ivana Hampton. A novelty in financial markets made investing more accessible for everyday people a century ago. Mutual funds have grown

to become the backbone of many retirement and brokerage accounts today, and this year marks

the 100th anniversary of the first mutual fund. Why have they been a win for investors? And what

should they expect in the future?

Russ Kennell is the director of ratings for Morning Star Research Services.

He's also the editor of Morningstar's Fund Investor newsletter.

Check out our conversation.

Thanks for being here, Russ.

Glad to be here.

So you have covered mutual funds for a long time.

What is the state of the mutual fund industry today?

I think it's pretty good.

In some ways it hasn't changed, but it's changed in other ways.

And I think there's greater transparency, fees are lower.

You have a lot more options. So I think there are a lot of good things. I think

some of the weaker players that might have been around, say, when I started at Morningstar

in the 90s have been weeded out. That has to be a good thing. So there are some good developments,

I think, of the industry today. I think it's a pretty investor-friendly industry these days.

Of course, there are still ways it can improve.

Now, the mutual fund, the first one, was created in 24.

And it was the 1940 Act that provided the rule book.

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