T. Rowe Price Eliminates Quarterly Fund Commentaries

briboe69

Here is the response I received from T. Rowe Price after inquiring where the quarterly fund commentary sections went on their website:

"I regret to inform you that that the commentary that was once found when clicking on the formerly labeled "Management/Commentary" tab has been removed for each fund. After careful consideration and research, we found that the tab did not receive enough visits to warrant keeping the commentary when combined with the knowledge that the commentary was never timely or 100% up-to-date despite our best efforts. We are working on developing a more robust experience for our shareholders to utilize in the future.

In the interim, we believe our T. Rowe Price Insights page will provide you with some of the information you may be looking for when it comes to investments, the markets & economy, and retirement & financial planning. These various pages are updated regularly with commentary and articles from specific investment professionals."

Very disappointing - I like to read a fund manager's commentary on how the fund performed, positioning, outlook, etc. each quarter.

VintageFreak

Another sign of market top. Now there is no need to explain oneself.

Charles

Wow.

hank

I never found these too substantial or helpful. Since they often mentioned the manager's "outlook" for his fund and its investments, I'd think that in addition to the reasons Price states there was a healthy dose of CYA involved in the decision. (Why risk lawsuits from disappointed investors based on such an insubstantial snapshot of the fund?)

However, many of their funds do a fantastic job with their annual and semi-annual reports - all of which are downloadable. Could be I'm missing something here. Just my HO.

Charles

Was thinking about implication of cancelling because of lack of interest.

Can see same logic used to cancel elections.

LLJB

I own 2 T. Rowe Price funds and I can't remember the last time I read one of their commentaries. At the same time I have other funds that I look forward to reading every quarter and even a few funds that I don't own but make a point of downloading their commentaries because I find them valuable. Maybe T. Rowe Price should have thought a little harder about the reasons why few people visited those tabs on their webpage and tried to write better commentaries rather than simply eliminating them. I have read their annual or semi-annual report once or twice and agree with @hank, they are capable of writing interesting and valuable stuff if they want to.

BobC

For me, the commentaries were worth the time to read and digest. For actively-managed funds, I believe it is important to know what a manager is thinking, publicly and privately. My only guess is that there is some compliance reason (i.e. CYA) for this change. And I am sure the ability to see how many clicks on these commentaries actually occurred factored into their decision, too. The semi-annual reports, fortunately, will not be affected.