I'm usually a bit hesitant to consider two funds clones unless they have the same managers and their portfolios have very similar attributes and holdings. Puritan not only has just a single manager while Balanced has ten, Puritan's manager isn't even one of those ten.
While I agree that there is huge overlap between the portfolios, the mixtures are significantly different. Puritan has an average market cap of $112B, while Balanced's is a smaller $73B. Puritan is a growth-heavy fund (54% growth stocks), while Balanced is a bit more shall we say balanced, with 33% growth, 26% value. Puritan's turnover, at 132% is double that of Balanced's 60%, but that high turnover could just be the result of a new manager having overhauled the portfolio in the past 1.5 years.
On the other hand, management at Balanced turns over frequently enough that even if the two funds are clones today, Balanced will turn into something else tomorrow.
Consider FZIPX which is lauded in the column, and FSMAX. They both are extended market index funds. However, they follow different indexes and have different attributes. Good candidates for substitution, but not clones. In fact, because FZIPX has a cash component 26x as large as FSMAX's, its cash drag alone costs more than any savings that FZIPX offers with a zero ER.
So even index funds where management is much less of an issue may not be clones. And there's more to finding good funds than picking the ones with rock bottom costs. Which is what the author of this column seems to have done.

I have been making a few end of year/beginning of new year portfolio adjustments in my taxable account. I did sell BTMIX--a very good short term, investment grade, municipal bond oef, and I have added AAHMX, a very low risk HY short duration Muni Bond oef. I expect to increase my TR with minimal increased risk, but time will tell how that will play out. I am still considering adding NVHAX from the HY Muni category, but its peak to trough loss in the 2015/2016 period, causes me some pause about this fund, so if I do add it, it would likely be a relatively small portfolio addition. I also sold DBLSX, and I decided to increase my holding in SEMMX--very different kinds of funds, but I think the SEMMX long term history of very consistent TR around 5% with very low SD/volatility is worth the risk.
In my IRA account, I have chosen to take some cash I have built up and distribute it to PIMIX, VCFAX, and IISIX positions I already own.

Capture ratio is a sort of "bang for your buck" summary. It's calculated by dividing a fund's downside capture (a fund that typically falls 1.1% when the market falls 1% has a downside capture of 1.10) by its upside capture (a fund that typically rises 1.1% when the market rises 1% has an upside capture of 1.10). Capture ratios greater than 1.0 reflect funds that produce more gains than losses; all other things being equal, high capture ratio funds are offering you the greatest reward for every unit of risk you've been subjected to.
Capture ratios even the playing field for cautious and aggressive investors. A cautious investor might look for fund with a downside capture of no more than .8. Given that constraint, anything above 1.0 is a winner! Aggressive investors might be willing to accept downside captures of 1.10 as long as they've been duly compensated. So, for them too, anything above 1.0 is a winner.
I screened to equity-oriented domestic funds, which included "flexible portfolios" and "aggressive allocation" funds but excluded global. For this first pass, I excluded closed funds, high-minimum ones and those with a downside capture greater 1.00.
Yacktman Focused (YAFFX)
Capture 1.26
Downside capture 0.7
APR 10.6%
Great Owl
Yacktman (YACKX, $100k minimum with no backdoors that I can find)
Capture 1.22
Downside capture 0.71
APR 10.1
Great Owl
Reynolds Blue Chip (RBCGX)
Capture 12.1
Downside capture 0.80
APR 11.1
The appeal of the Reynolds BCG fund is almost entirely driven by its performance during the 2007-09 crash. It appears to have been almost entirely in cash and simply sailed through it. $10,000 invested in RBCGX at the peak of the last market would be worth $36,000 today, the same investment in the S&P 500 index would be $26,000. Since then it's been entirely uninspiring.
Madison Dividend Income (BHBFX, $25,000 minimum, $500 for an IRA but $100 at Schwab)
Capture 1.20
Downside capture 0.66
APR 8.9
Great Owl
Intrepid Endurance (ICMAX)
Capture 1.18
Downside capture 0.46
APR 6.6
I hesitated to include ICMAX despite its long-term record. I love the absolute-value discipline and willingness to hold cash until the market offers rationally priced stocks. Cash is down to 42% of the portfolio now. That said, it's made about 1% a year over the past 3- and 5-year periods and has undergone three sets of manager turnovers: Cinnamond to Wiggins to the current team, with president Mark Travis in and out, in and out.
Monetta Core Growth (MYIFX)
Capture 1.17
Downside capture 0.89
APR 11.4
Investors consciously looking to keep their downside capture as low as they can would start with the Yacktman and Madison funds but might add
First Trust Value Dividend ETF
Capture 1.17
Downside capture 0.72
APR 9.2
Great Owl
Prospector Opportunity (POPFX)
Capture 1.14
Downside capture 0.75
APR 9.0
Great Owl
The best fund that's fallen between those cracks is Parnassus Equity. It, along with the Yacktman funds, are the only fund in the lower downside capture group to exceed 10% annual returns over the full market cycle. It adds the attraction of a long-standing commitment to an ESG-screened portfolio.
Parnassus Core Equity (PRBLX)
Capture 1.17
Downside capture 0.79
APR 10.6
Great Owl
David's disclosure: I'm playing with possible articles for February and March, with an eye to finding options for indolent investors (that is, those who might shift their portfolios once every year or two) and, possibly, newer investors who have the necessity of starting their portfolios in a market that might well slap them in the face soon.
Is this a useful focus? How might I improve it?
I did update the list following Stillers suggestion to add ticker symbols. At that point I also figured out that Virtus KAR Small-Cap Growth had closed and that I was having trouble finding a way about Yacktman's $100,000 minimum, so I added Intrepid and Monetta since they were the next funds on the list.
David

FPURX has changed to a virtual clone of FBALX , although Puritan seems to have only 1 manager.

I believe that 401(k) withdrawals have to be initiated on the 401(k) side, unlike IRA transfers/conversions. Often a 401(k) holding is a security that cannot be transferred in kind so liquidation is mandatory. Between having to liquidate holdings and rollovers taking weeks, it's understandable that one would want to hedge the market.
To hedge equity transfers, you can identify some tax-sheltered money that you've got sitting in cash or near cash, or absent that, some reasonably vanilla bond fund that's easily bought and sold. It doesn't have to be in the same place where you're going to transfer the 401(k), it just needs to be in some tax-sheltered account.
Simultaneously use that cash to buy an equity holding and sell the same amount of the equity holding in the 401(k). Then transfer the cash. You now have a new stash of cash available. Rinse and repeat. After the final transfer, use the cash to repurchase the near cash or bond holding that you sold off at the beginning of this process.
If the amount of cash you've got to play with is small and if it takes a couple of weeks to to a transfer, you could be at this for months. Still, you're not going anywhere, so it's just a matter of time and patience.
An alternative, if your 401(k) custodian also provides no-fee IRAs is to have the 401(k) rollover done "in house". For example, Fidelity, Vanguard, etc. often operate companies' 401(k) plans. In house rollovers are usually much faster than rollovers between financial institutions
Even if you aren't excited by the IRA options, so long as they're adequate, they'll do for the purpose of keeping you in the market. You can either do a straight pre-tax rollover followed by a conversion, or a direct rollover conversion.

@ron
From Jan 3, 2018 to Jan. 2, 2020; about 29.6% total return for FCPGX.

Do your 401k plans have any special requirements to withdraw the money? This question could apply to whomever is receiving the rollover.
One of our rollovers to an existing T-IRA required that Fidelity provide a "letter of acceptance" to the 401k custodian.............basically, a YES you are loosing your customer and Fidelity is and will accept the money. DUH ??? So, this transaction took 2 weeks because of postal mail time.
On the other hand, I rolled a 401k operated by Vanguard to move the money to Fidelity; and Fidelity called "their" Vanguard contact, with myself and the 2 of them on the phone. I provided security information that satisfied Vanguard's requirements and the rollover took place electronically between the two parties. I received paper confirmation about 5 days later from both.
I can't provide help with concerns for market place happenings during the transfer idle times. At best, this means nothing; at the very least this is not more than a coin toss for any 2 week period of the markets, yes?

@stillers
I agree with your observation of FBALX. At .53% E.R. and a since inception (1986) annualized return of about 9.3%; well, if one is doing better than this, then stick with your plan. If one wants to retire from meddling with their portfolio; this fund, as well as whatever moderate allocation funds one has access to, may provide your managed account choice without the need of an advisor.
I read through the article, and perhaps some folks have or still do consider Fidelity to be pricey. If so, they have not done their homework and also do not understand or know the history of Fidelity and its positive impact upon the investing marketplace helping provide the diverse and inexpensive investments available to the small, individual investor today.
Fidelity, along with Vanguard and Schwab placed enormous pressure into the diversity and pricing of mutual funds, especially during the 1980's. Their actions then (forcing the high loads on mutual funds of companies as Merrill Lynch and the rest to have to re-do these fees or lose customers) and today; with their continued pricing and offerings pressures still to the benefit of the small, individual investor.
As to the choices in the article, well; as usual, everyone will make their appropriate choices.
Disclosure: A Fidelity customer for more than 40 years and biased to the favorable side of investing with them.

About half of our retirement savings is still sitting in the 401K accounts for my wife’s and my former employer. It’s a good 401K plan with a range of index funds, low expenses and a decent stable value fund. We’ve been rolling over some of the funds each year to Roth IRAs, at a rate that doesn’t bump us up to a higher tax bracket. Eventually, I would also like to transfer the remaining funds to our existing Rollover and Roth IRAs.
Here’s the rub. Every time we do a transfer or rollover, the money is out of the market for up to two weeks. The markets often make big moves in two weeks time, and I prefer to stay invested. In almost every case in which I moved funds, the markets went up, so I essentially lost money by being out of the markets. So far, the amounts haven’t been huge because I’ve transferred amounts ranging from $5,000 to $20,000. However, if I decided to move my entire 401K accounts, the amounts could be sizable.
Of course, the transfers could work in my favor if the markets dropped during the time that my 401K funds are sold and reinvested two weeks later — but it never seems to work that way.
Does anyone have any ideas for speeding up the rollover/transfer process or hedging the potential losses?

"(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures shed about 1% on Friday after a U.S. air strike in Iraq killed a top Iranian commander, sharply escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and denting risk appetite."
Article

I was not recommending this fund. I was not not recommending this fund. I have no interest or position in it. There is nothing to agree or disagree with. I was simply pointing out that it was the top large growth fund in 2019 which returned 43% and cost 0.99%, which appears to me to have been good value - in 2019.

https://investorplace.com/2020/01/7-best-of-the-best-fidelity-funds-to-buy/
7 Best of the Best Fidelity Funds to Buy
These Fidelity funds are some of the best from the issuer's expansive lineup
Many investors think of Fidelity as a giant in the actively managed mutual funds space. That is true, but Fidelity funds run the gamut of actively-managed mutual funds to passive index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

https://www.businessinsider.com/retirement-saving-advice-2020-from-blackrock-bond-cio-rick-rieder-2019-12
BlackRock’s $1.7 trillion bond chief explains why it’s about to become much harder to save for retirement — and shares his best advice for doing it successfully
Safe, high-yielding investments are shrinking in availability at a time when retirement savers need them the most, according to Rick Rieder, the global chief investment officer of BlackRock’s $1.9 trillion fixed income business.
He estimates that 1.8 million people in the US will hit the retirement age of 65 every six months — double the pace from 20 years ago.

I don't think they have updated the database for bonds. My Portfolio Manager still shows 2019 TRs for my bond funds.

After digging within MFOP for cashlike ETFs, I am now studying VCSH to augment MINT, and while I say I could trade off volatility for return, I see it spent almost a year underwater (starting end summer '17), eesh. (That's just about the time when several here started mentioning the appeal of VCSH ....)
Available Fido and ML no problem; not positive there are no restrictions on quick trading, but I believe so.
fwiw and anyone seeking similar, my boiled-down results also included ICSH, GSY, SLQD, and LDRI.

Found this old post by Junkster concerning HOBEX concerning MLPs in retirement accounts:
https://mutualfundobserver.com/discuss/discussion/comment/110225/#Comment_110225

DFDPX is numero uno in the large growth category. Worth paying 0.99% for 43% growth in one year, wouldn't you say?
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/dfdpx/quote

.99% wouldn't be too much to pay for 43% growth - IF someone had bought the fund before 2019. But today, Jan 2, 2020, last year's performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. If you don't believe it, read the prospectus.
The girls who were pretty last year will likely be pretty this year. But funds that were pretty in 2019 won't necessarily be pretty in 2020.

Bobpa: "Any opinion on LALDX or HOBEX? Thank you for all your input." .
Bobpa, I owned LALDX for years through an employment retirement menu--I considered it a good, relatively low risk, fund, with a large AUM (likely due to its being marketed through company retirement plans). I think Lord Abbot is somewhat more aggressive in their asset management approach for this fund, compared to funds like DBLSX and DHEIX. I think it can be a good fund for ballast portfolio roles, and for a conservative bond oef investor, it looks like a very viable option.
Regarding HOBEX, it is a relatively new fund (about 3 years old), generally looks to be a High Risk/High Return fund for its category. Focuses heavily on Corporate bonds, and with a bit higher volatility than most of its peers. I don't like its very high Expense Ratio (1.81) and I don't care for a relatively steep peak to trough loss in 2018 for this category of funds. It would not fit my criteria for investing, but certainly has had a high return for its category in its 3 year existence. It is not a fund I follow, not a company I am familiar with, so I personally would be careful with what I know.

I second Gary1952, AKREX it’s an excellent fund.
I’ve been transitioning POGRX into AKREX for two years and am very happy that I did.
The risk/reward profile is far superior to primecap. It is a bit pricey though.

I have noticed that the Brown Advisory website is ridiculously slow to load, trying just to get to the home-page. Further, it appears to me that someone (the idiot webmaster?) has decided to make it confusing to sign-into one's own account. You have to hit upon the correct webpage, and then it's standard procedure, and quite simple: username, password. But using google or yahoo or any other search engine brings up several other false links which LOOK like the one you'd probably want. I just did it again, just to see it. There's multiple clickable links for :
1. TouchPoint
2. Austin Clients (what about the REST of us??????)
3. Brokerage accounts
4. Mutual fund access (THIS is what we want)
5. something called "PIVOT."
6. something called "Trust Now."
...I'd have simply cut-and-pasted the URL link here, but this borrowed Mac makes it impossible to find where the actual URL link is hidden. Apple's done a great job of not making it obvious. The specific URL just isn't anywhere where it can be spotted, seen and identified. The only thing in the address-bar says "brownadvisory.com." About as helpful as a bicycle is to a dead carp.