As natural gas (UNG) prices drop further, how will this help or hurt Utilities funds such as GASFX, VUIAX...maybe even industrials (VINAX)?
Charting UNG, GASFX, VUIAX, VINAX:

Let me echo Lewis's bewilderment. As a practical matter, most funds will toil in anonymity for 3-5 years regardless of how good they are. Advisor screens routinely, I'm told, exclude folks who don't yet have a three year record. So "not much traction" should have been written into the business plan.
The firm was underwriting the fund's operation to the tune of 0.4% - about a quarter million a year - but part of that cost is likely mystery money. That is, there are some management expenses (e.g., attorney fees) that are already born by William Blair, a fraction of which are allocated to each fund. The prospect that liquidating the fund will materially reduce expenses, especially if its assets don't stay in-house, are limited.
I'll ask.
David

2.5 years and couldn't really get much traction... Only ~$60 million. Probably felt there wasn't enough money going into global small cap strategies and the $ that is...... Well, we all know where that has been going.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/822632/000119312515354880/d91280d497.htm
497 1 d91280d497.htm WILLIAM BLAIR FUNDS
WILLIAM BLAIR FUNDS
SUPPLEMENT TO PROSPECTUS DATED MAY 1, 2015 (AS SUPPLEMENTED JULY 1, 2015
AND SEPTEMBER 28, 2015)
The information below supplements the Prospectus for the William Blair Global Small Cap Growth Fund.
The Global Small Cap Growth Fund (the “Fund”) is closed to additional investment.
Upon the recommendation of the Adviser, the Board of Trustees determined that it was in the best interests of the Fund to redeem all the shares of the Fund outstanding on or about January 15, 2016 (the “Liquidation Date”), and then to terminate the Fund. Prior to the Liquidation Date, shareholders of the Fund may redeem their shares or exchange their shares for shares of another William Blair Fund. Any shares of the Fund that have not been redeemed or exchanged prior to the Liquidation Date will be redeemed automatically at their net asset value per share on that date.
The information below supplements the Prospectus for the William Blair Global Leaders Fund.
Effective January 1, 2016, Andrew G. Flynn and Kenneth J. McAtamney, each a Partner of William Blair Investment Management, LLC, will co-manage the William Blair Global Leaders Fund.
Dated: October 27, 2015
WILLIAM BLAIR FUNDS
222 West Adams Street
Chicago, Illinois 60606
Please retain this supplement with your Prospectus for future reference.
WILLIAM BLAIR FUNDS
SUPPLEMENT TO STATEMENT OF ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
DATED MAY 1, 2015 (AS SUPPLEMENTED JULY 1, 2015 AND
SEPTEMBER 28, 2015)
The information below supplements the Statement of Additional Information for the William Blair Global Small Cap Growth Fund.
The Global Small Cap Growth Fund (the “Fund”) is closed to additional investment.
Upon the recommendation of the Adviser, the Board of Trustees determined that it was in the best interests of the Fund to redeem all the shares of the Fund outstanding on or about January 15, 2016 (the “Liquidation Date”), and then to terminate the Fund. Prior to the Liquidation Date, shareholders of the Fund may redeem their shares or exchange their shares for shares of another William Blair Fund. Any shares of the Fund that have not been redeemed or exchanged prior to the Liquidation Date will be redeemed automatically at their net asset value per share on that date.
The information below supplements the Statement of Additional Information of the William Blair Global Leaders Fund.
Effective January 1, 2016, Andrew G. Flynn and Kenneth J. McAtamney, each a Partner of William Blair Investment Management, LLC, will co-manage the William Blair Global Leaders Fund.
Dated: October 27, 2015
WILLIAM BLAIR FUNDS
222 West Adams Street
Chicago, Illinois 60606
Please retain this supplement with your Statement of Additional Information for future reference.

@Bitzer Yes, it certainly matters where they go and when they go there. And just to demonstrate how much difference there is between "non-traditional" bond funds, here's something I ran across several days ago, a rather cursory yet quantitative breakdown of the top 5 funds (with respect to total return) vs. the bottom 5 funds, from Aug 2013 thru Aug 2015:

It comes from
http://markovprocesses.com/blog/2015/08/examining-recent-winners-and-losers-in-the-nontraditional-bond-fund-category/
where you'll find more food for thought.

If life expectancy is currently at 83 for women, that means 50% will live beyond age 83, and a good portion of those will live way beyond 83. As we tell folks all the time, "Tell me when you are going to die, and we will tell you exactly the path to take."

I would venture a guess that life expectancy of 83 year old women who are wealthy enough to seek out the services of a financial planners is higher than 50%.
Wealth and health (life expectancy) often are highly correlated. Check out a quick search result on the topic of:
"A wealthy man, born in 1920 who retired at age 65, could expect to draw Social Security for 19 years. His son, born in 1940 and retired at age 67, could expect to draw benefits for 24 years. Yes, he retired later, but he’s living longer.
This would not be true for men and women at the bottom. They would draw Social Security for fewer years, if the retirement age rises, and their longevity does not."
The Richer You Are the Older You’ll Get

and,
this chart highlights the change in life expectancy for each subgroup (men and women):

STB65, you raise a valid point, and we will reduce expectancy when the client tells us of family history, own health issues, etc. Life expectancy has nothing to do with marketing. It has to do with reality. If life expectancy is currently at 83 for women, that means 50% will live beyond age 83, and a good portion of those will live way beyond 83. As we tell folks all the time, "Tell me when you are going to die, and we will tell you exactly the path to take."

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/709364/000094937715000368/e37643_rdf-isi497.htm
497 1 e37643_rdf-isi497.htm
The Royce Fund
Supplement to the Investment, Service, and Institutional Class Shares Prospectus Dated May 1, 2015
Royce Micro-Cap Discovery Fund
The Royce Fund’s Board of Trustees approved a plan of liquidation for Royce Micro-Cap Discovery Fund, to be effective on December 8, 2015. The Fund is being liquidated primarily because it has not attracted and maintained assets at a sufficient level for it to be viable. As of October 9, 2015, the Fund was no longer offering its shares for purchase and was not accepting any investments in the Fund.
October 26, 2015
DSC-SUPP-CLOSE

Recent Article on why not to buy into the hype of alternatives:
" A combination of cash instruments like money markets and CDs along with a high-quality, short-term bond fund and a similar quality intermediate fund will do the trick."
alternative-to-what, making-money?

"The mutual fund industry has embraced its version of alternative investing, putting hedge-fund-like strategies into more than 700 mutual and exchange-traded funds that aim to provide the same risk/return profile with lower fees, more transparency, and daily liquidity."

To read the article, click on the top link in this Search

Like the Donald Trump thread highlighted by STB65, this one too seems misplaced under Fund Discussions.
(However, unlike the other, this one does earn the coveted "gaf" rating.)

@expatsp said: "You guys are a tough audience. According to M*, RSIVX is a whopping 1.6% behind its benchmark over the last year. Any fund with a 6% yield is going to have some volatility. I remember in David's original write up that the manager's promise was to deliver 6-8% yield and more or less stable capital over a five year cycle. It seems to me he's on his way to meet that goal."
I agree. But, it will be interesting to read the 3rd quarter commentary to get David Sherman's take on the fund's recent performance.
Also, I agree with expatsp that PTIAX looks interesting (thanks to @TSP_Transfer ) . It's current investment mix appears to make it a "hybrid high yield fund" (to invent another category). M* says the fund has about 40% in municipal bonds and B as the average credit quality. Successfully blending those two types of bonds in one fund could serve to even out year to year performance. I wonder what other funds do that?
Here is the three year chart:
Chart

To Bob C.
A logical government policy wouldn't expend taxpayer money to ensure more time on SS or Medicare.
Why do I now feel this urge to re-read Ayn Rand?

There will be medicare in name only ... similar to what is happening in Canada & Eng - long waiting times, reduced approved services.
I'm guessing in the US there might be a 3rd medical insurance (1. Obamacare, 2.medicare ) - 3. private insurance. A person pays for Obamacare or medicare but also for those that can afford it, a private insurance (that was the insurance before Obamacare).

BAIRD MUTUAL FUNDS (No update yet, 10-25-15)
http://www.bairdfunds.com/distribution-information
BAIRD UPDATE AS of 11-08-2015
http://content.rwbaird.com/BairdFunds/PDF/Estimated-Capital-Gains-10-31-15.pdf
FMI MUTUAL FUNDS (No update yet, 10-25-15)
http://www.fiduciarymgt.com/fmifunds/general-fund-links/mutual-fund-tax-information/
GOODHAVEN
http://www.goodhavenfunds.com/media/pdfs/GOODX_2015_Estimated_Distributions.pdf
Note to The Shadow (Original Poster)
DIAMOND HILL:
Link for Diamond Hill has changed. It is now:
http://www.diamond-hill.com/wp-content/uploads/DHF-year-to-date-capital-gains-as-of-9-30-15.pdf | (i.e., End of Sep 2015)

This is what happens if you initially fail to check the reinvest box. Last December 5 I bought $9000 worth of PDI. Like a dope I did not reinvest for three months, until April. Have been auto-reinvesting since then, per usual. Current total cost is $9400 approx and current value is $8500, a loss of -9.5% approx. I do not know what 'distributions' I received Dec-April but I bet it was not $900, much less over. I have not crunched all the numbers from PDI to ensure that my Merrill accounting is accurate. (I probably will be sticking solely with PONDX instead going forward, and bail out of PDI when it breaks even. I have made money on it in the past; it is just this one 11mo partial-mistake period that irks so.)

I've found I have to be careful using M* charts with regard to cef's. When you bring up a chart on an oef (e.g., PIMIX in Bee's post above) and then add a cef to compare, the chart shows total return for the cef on nav, not on price. The 'Performance' pages show both the return on price and return on nav, so that's typically where I go to do comparisons between oef's and cef's.
Example to show that doing the charting as above is about cef nav, not price: if you chart PIMIX today for 1y and then add PDI, PDI's total return shows as +4.59%. Go to the Performance page, and the return on nav is shown as 4.59%, but the return on price has been +7.57%.
Best, AJ

One more data point on PDI:

From the Grandeur Peak website: total net assets of GPMCX were $14.9 million as of 10-23-2015.
($85 million in allocation was requested, but some folks got a haircut.)

Ha. Most of the screaming has been mine about PDI performance the last year or so.

M* does a nice job of charting total return. If you look at purely a price chart (i.e. yahoofinance) the share price since 6/30/14 has dropped over 10%:

But during that time an investor would have collected lots dividends and this table lists both daily share price, dividends and more importantly price adjusted for dividends and splits:

M* charts show this dynamically as if an investor reinvested dividends over the same time frame. I include it's mutual fund cousin (PONDX) for comparison.

Looks like you are up 6% over this time frame you are "screaming" about. Not too shabby @davidmoran.
I have often wondered if PDI would make a good alternative to an income annuity. It presently pays out over 8% and most likely will always have a death benefit (think of the share price as the death benefit). Also, I believe cefs are inherited with the same stepped up basis as stocks making them the inherited cost basis tax free.