CTFAX's M* review states that their methodology was unproven. Last updated in 2019. Will be interesting to read the update. I do recall an article about how Columbia'starget retirement funds did things differently with the equity sleeve.

YOU have 60 days to return it from date of distribution, I believe I read. Although that may be from CARES implementation.
(Already taken out your 2020 RMD but wish you hadn’t? You might be able to roll over distributions you’ve already taken for 2020, says Slott. If you've already received a distribution from your own IRA or one inherited from a spouse for 2020, you can roll it back into your IRA within 60 days of receipt. ]

A couple of tweaks.
The "classic" 60 day rule is that the clock starts from the date you receive the distribution, not from the date the distribution is made. It can take a few days to receive the check in the mail.
https://www.irahelp.com/slottreport/6-facts-every-ira-owner-should-know-about-60-day-rollover-rule
CARES extended the time from 60 days to three years, and allowed the money to be deposited back into an IRA in pieces. But these modifications apply only to the first $100K withdrawn, and then only if it was withdrawn because of a COVID-19 created need.
The inherited IRA rule is not that you are rolling it back into the inherited IRA. It must be rolled over into an IRA owned by the beneficiary (spouse). As Kitces writes:

(Nerd Note: The lone exception for beneficiaries would be for a spouse who chose to remain a beneficiary of the deceased spouse’s retirement account. In such an instance, they may be eligible to put the RMD back into their own retirement account, as a spousal rollover, using one of the methods described above.)

The suggestion that "those who took an early distribution should be able to put it back" is not always true. If someone were to take an early RMD distribution from an inherited IRA, that person would not be able to put it back. That's because, as Kitces writes, "A beneficiary is not eligible to make a rollover. Period."
Similarly, for one to be able to put back a QCD, there would have to be an existing 60 day rollover rule for QCDs. There isn't.
The 60 day rule according to the IRS, is: "If a distribution from an IRA or a retirement plan is paid directly to you, you can deposit all or a portion of it in an IRA or a retirement plan within 60 days ... from the date you receive an IRA or retirement plan distribution."
The money wasn't paid directly to you. There's no date you received the distribution, so no 60 day clock is running.
Think about the complexity of such a rule if it existed. Aside from redefining the 60 day clock, it would need special provisions to allow you to take an itemized deduction for the charitable contribution.
That's because when the smoke cleared, you would have reduced your taxable account by the size of the contribution and left your IRA intact. I'm pretty confident that no such verbiage exists in CARES.

@LewisBraham
What you said is mostly correct BUT index works best for US LC. I have done very nicely by having a list of great risk/reward funds and selecting the one with the best momentum. Basically, I call them my NBA team. I want my team to go to the playoff every year. Even a superstar (like PIMIX) will be out if I can find a better performer (in my case IOFIX). This guarantees my funds to be a top performer. I also care a lot about volatility.
In 2000-2009 I mostly held 3 funds SGENX,FAIRX,OAKBX. After 2010 and preparing for retirement I held PRWCX and PIMIX and then IOFIX.
===============
@MikeM
long term FMIJX looks better but I only care what happened in the last 1-3 years. See my answer above.
I also look at my fund managers as my contractors, I employ the ones that give me the best work for the money. If they don't perform, I just switch them.

You can do the above. Suppose your portfolio is 50/50 and you invested 20%(out of the 50%) in SPY with a trailing stop market at 10%. It means that as long as SPY goes up the trailing stop follows but when SPY starts going down and eventually hits it SPY will be sold at 10% (could be higher if the market is moving really fast) loss and now you will have only 30% in stocks.

@FD1000: Yes, I know. But I'm looking at this not as getting out of a single holding and changing the balance of the portfolio. The idea is to safe guard your entire portfolio, your retirement savings, to some pre-specified loss. SPY may drop 10% but if your portfolio only dropped 5% and that is within your risk tolerance, why would you run to safety or sell SPY at that point ?
If you work with an adviser or even if you do things yourself, setting up a portfolio is based on your risk tolerance. So much equity, so much bonds, so much cash. You decide you're comfortable with a 10% loss or a 20% loss, ect... A stop limit order on the portfolio would set that risk or acceptable loss tolerance without emotion. The Blackrock iShare ETFs as far a I can see are the only balanced portfolio ETFs that can execute this idea.
Just talking through the idea. I'm a buy and hold investor with small buy-sell-swap adjustments on the side like most everyone else here.

@FD100, but what the idea is is to stay invested in a diversified balanced portfolio through the good years and exit automatically when a black swan event unexpectedly pushes you into some place you don't want to be, 20-25% loss. I don't think many retirees want to take more than a 10-15% loss on retirement money in an unexpected occurrence. With minimizing the loss you may not have any long term affect on your life style.
I agree though that if done, it should be a % of the total. But maybe a substantial %.

You can do the above. Suppose your portfolio is 50/50 and you invested 20%(out of the 50%) in SPY with a trailing stop market at 10%. It means that as long as SPY goes up the trailing stop follows but when SPY starts going down and eventually hits it SPY will be sold at 10% (could be higher if the market is moving really fast) loss and now you will have only 30% in stocks.

Thought this would be worth posting. It points out the value of rebalancing, especially when in retirement and making withdrawals.
https://thefinancebuff.com/better-withdraw-cash-bonds-bear-market.html

If I am making more money I expect to be paying more taxes. I can think of far worse things to worry about in the prime of my career than whether I'm bumped into a higher tax bracket this year or not. Being debt-free, living within my means, and not being flamboyant with my money goes a long way to retirement savings, even if I might take an income hit at some point down the road if/when I retire from the uni.
Sure, I try to offset cap gains/losses year-to-year, but I find that more about prudent investing than tax planning per se. Besides, it's kind of fun.

I think of net income in terms of total return. Investment gains are often part of taxable income. Marginal tax brackets do increase the drag on total return or better said marginal tax brackets diminish total return.
Most of us need a certain income to afford our life style. Recent data shows that ninety percent of income earners spend more than 100% of their earning so they need to take on additional debt as a means of affording their lifestyle. That math doesn't work.
Income graph:
https://screencast.com/t/rUJS2IeZ6ah
To your second point:
I remember having a conversation with a colleague who couldn't understand why I chose to retire early. My point to him was that he was working for the difference between what he would make (his work income) and what he would receive in retirement (pension income). I further pointed out that he could go elsewhere and work another full time or part time job making his total return (net taxes) much higher. Obviously by staying with his job he was adding years of service to his pension making his eventual pension income higher.
I consider taxes with regard to tax loss harvesting, Roth conversions, and potential qualifications for various benefits (HSA contributions, ACA Insurance subsidies, etc)
Taxes and tax brackets do have many nuisances (tax rules) beyond the marginal taxes brackets. I have always thought a simple flat tax would level the playing field.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1657267/000089418920002691/millerhowardfundstrust497e.htm
497 1 millerhowardfundstrust497e.htm 497E
Miller/Howard Income-Equity Fund
Class Ticker Symbol
Class I MHIEX
Adviser Share Class MHIDX
(A series of Miller/Howard Funds Trust)
Supplement dated April 14, 2020 to the Prospectus, Summary Prospectus and
Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”) dated February 28, 2020
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Based upon a recommendation by MHI Funds, LLC (the “Adviser”), the Board of Trustees (the “Board”) of Miller/Howard Funds Trust (the “Trust”) has approved a plan of liquidation for the Miller/Howard Income-Equity Fund (the “Fund”) as a series of the Trust, pursuant to which the Fund will be liquidated on or around June 15, 2020 (the “Liquidation” or the “Liquidation Date”). The Adviser has determined that the Fund has limited prospects for meaningful growth. As a result, the Adviser and the Board believe that the Liquidation of the Fund is in the best interests of shareholders.
In anticipation of the Liquidation, effective as of the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange (“close of business”) on April 14, 2020, the Fund will be closed to new investments. In addition, effective April 15, 2020, the Adviser may begin an orderly transition of the Fund’s portfolio securities to cash and cash equivalents and the Fund may cease investing its assets in accordance with its investment objective and policies.
Shareholders may voluntarily redeem shares of the Fund, as described in the Fund’s Prospectus, before the Liquidation Date. Shareholders remaining in the Fund just prior to the Liquidation Date may bear increased transaction fees in connection with the disposition of the Fund’s portfolio holdings. If the Fund has not received your redemption request or other instruction by the close of business on June 15, 2020, your shares will be automatically redeemed on the Liquidation Date. Shareholders will receive a liquidating distribution in an amount equal to the net asset value of their Fund shares, less any required withholding. For shareholders that hold their shares in a taxable account, the redemption of Fund shares will generally be treated as any other redemption of shares (i.e., a sale that may result in a gain or loss for federal income tax purposes). Your net cash proceeds from the Fund, less any required withholding, will be sent to the address of record.
If you hold your shares in an individual retirement account (an “IRA”), you have 60 days from the date you receive your proceeds to reinvest or “rollover” your proceeds into another IRA in order to maintain their tax-deferred status. You must notify the Fund’s transfer agent at 1-845-684-5730 prior to June 15, 2020 of your intent to rollover your IRA account to avoid withholding deductions from your proceeds.
If the redeemed shares are held in a qualified retirement account, such as an IRA, the redemption proceeds may not be subject to current income taxation. You should consult with your tax advisor on the consequences of this redemption to you. Checks will be issued to all shareholders of record as of the close of business on the Liquidation Date.
Please contact the Fund at 1-845-684-5730 if you have any questions.
This supplement should be retained with your Prospectus, Summary Prospectus and SAI for future reference.

@FD100, but what the idea is is to stay invested in a diversified balanced portfolio through the good years and exit automatically when a black swan event unexpectedly pushes you into some place you don't want to be, 20-25% loss. I don't think many retirees want to take more than a 10-15% loss on retirement money in an unexpected occurrence. With minimizing the loss you may not have any long term affect on your life style.
I agree though that if done, it should be a % of the total. But maybe a substantial %.

I had a neighbor once tell me that stocks had to go up because everybody's retirement depends on it. I've started to wonder if that is a goal of all these emergency actions taken by the Fed and Congress. They're not backstopping stocks yet, but indirectly, maybe they are.
Anyway, pretty scary commentary.

I was in the Marina Safeway in San Francisco (Old Joe will know it) early one morning before the dot com bust. And I overheard one stocker say to another that there was no way to lose money in the market, because all you had to do was sell when it started to go down.

A depressing as heck article. A few questions I have though are: The author discusses the real and expected unemployment numbers and compares them to the Great Depression, but he doesn’t ask about the duration of that unemployment or expected duration. There’s a huge difference between a 25% unemployment rate for three months and three years for instance and the impact that will have. How long will this scenario last is a vital question? Also, he doesn’t examine the nature of employment itself and how that’s changed since the Great Depression. Back then people had trades and jobs when they were working often for life, often in the same locale. Today we have a gig economy where Americans are used to switching jobs and relocating for work. How will that factor into the equation? Then there’s technology itself and how that’s changed our consumption patterns. Will Americans stop clicking Buy when it’s so easy even if the economy worsens? Also, regarding fiscal spending versus previous eras, I wonder how they would look if you inflation adjusted past spending, debt and GDP numbers?
@Charles

I had a neighbor once tell me that stocks had to go up because everybody's retirement depends on it.

The only thing is a significant percentage of Americans have little to no savings so this really isn’t true.

I was thinking of how some investors, especially retirees, can protect themselves from massive sell-offs like we just had. This idea came to my head. What about using a "Trailing Stop Order" on a portfolio? (maybe this hibernation gives me to much time to think :) )
These are typically used when you are buying or selling stocks. It sets discipline on when to sell. There is one set of diversified portfolio ETFs that you could do this with, the BlackRock iShares allocation funds, AOM, AOR, AOA. These are actually pretty good diversified "balance" funds, conservative, moderate and aggressive. The one closest to 60:40 allocation is AOR. This fund compares well to Vanguards balanced index fund VBINX. I think @davidrmoran brought these ETFs to my attention a few years ago. I have not been able to find other balanced ETFs that are diversified like these.
The idea would be to hold one of these ETFs as your core portfolio holding, maybe the bulk of the portfolio or whatever % you deem appropriate. If you want to limit your loss to say 10% of the funds high you set up the trailing stop order to sell at -10%. You protect the bulk of your retirement savings. Especially important if you are already retired and massive 20%+ really hurts maybe more so than for people still in the accumulative stage.
Any opinions + or - on this idea? I am contemplating this idea in my retirement savings so that I am not a deer in the head lights.

I had a neighbor once tell me that stocks had to go up because everybody's retirement depends on it. I've started to wonder if that is a goal of all these emergency actions taken by the Fed and Congress. They're not backstopping stocks yet, but indirectly, maybe they are.
Anyway, pretty scary commentary.

@royal4 - I had considered that but if the market goes up from here there doesn't seem to be a reason for doing so.
ALSO: " A Roth IRA conversion made on or after January 1, 2018, cannot be recharacterized. For details, see “Recharacterizations” in Publication 590-A, Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs)."
IRA FAQS - Recharacterization of IRA Contributions

I took my equity allocation down to 20% in my retirement account when the S&P hit 2900. I increased back to 45% when S&P hit 2400. I plan to increase again if/when S&P hits 2300.

Just found the SEC Filing so it is not an April Fools joke!
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/915802/000139834420007183/fp0052318_497.htm
497 1 fp0052318_497.htm
FINANCIAL INVESTORS TRUST
SUPPLEMENT DATED MARCH 31, 2020 TO THE SUMMARY PROSPECTUSES AND PROSPECTUS FOR THE GRANDEUR PEAK EMERGING MARKETS OPPORTUNITIES FUND, GRANDEUR PEAK GLOBAL MICRO CAP FUND, GRANDEUR PEAK GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES FUND, GRANDEUR PEAK GLOBAL REACH FUND AND GRANDEUR PEAK INTERNATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FUND (EACH A “FUND,” AND TOGETHER, THE “GRANDEUR PEAK FUNDS”) DATED AUGUST 31, 2019
Effective April 1, 2020, the Grandeur Peak Emerging Markets Opportunities Fund, Grandeur Peak Global Opportunities Fund, Grandeur Peak Global Reach Fund, and Grandeur Peak International Opportunities Fund will reopen to all shareholders.
Also, effective April 1, 2020, the Grandeur Peak Global Micro Cap Fund will reopen to all shareholders who purchase directly from Grandeur Peak Funds. The Fund remains open through financial intermediaries to shareholders who currently hold a position in the Fund. Financial advisors with clients in the Fund are able to invest in the Fund for both existing as well as new clients. The Fund also remains open to all participants of retirement plans currently holding a position in the Fund.
INVESTORS SHOULD RETAIN THIS SUPPLEMENT FOR FUTURE REFERENCE

@Mark Yes, a home is an illiquid asset that is hard to value or to liquidate to pay debts. Yet looking at just that is thinking like the average person whose home is his/her largest asset. According to Brookings, "Almost three-quarters of aggregate household assets are in the form of financial assets—namely stocks and mutual funds, retirement accounts, and closely-held businesses. Real estate makes up the vast majority of nonfinancial assets."https://brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2019/06/25/six-facts-about-wealth-in-the-united-states/Since the top 20% controls 77% of America's net worth, much of their assets is not in their residence but in more liquid forms--cash, stocks, bonds, funds, etc: "In fact, the top one percent alone holds more wealth than the middle class. They owned 29 percent—or over $25 trillion—of household wealth in 2016, while the middle class owned just $18 trillion.[iii]" When Bernie Sanders talked about a 2.5% wealth tax he wasn't asking people to sell their homes to pay it.

Just received this email (the table in the email has been adjusted below)
March 31, 2020
Dear Clients and Fellow Shareholders,
We are re-opening the Grandeur Peak Emerging Markets Opportunities Fund, Grandeur Peak Global Opportunities Fund, Grandeur Peak Global Reach Fund, and Grandeur Peak International Opportunities Fund to all shareholders as of Wednesday, April 1, 2020.
We continue to be encouraged by the limited redemptions by our shareholders as we experience increasing volatility in the markets, and believe it is in the best interest of both shareholders and portfolio managers to have the funds open at this time. Opening the Funds to new shareholders may provide an opportunity to make investment decisions in today’s depressed markets that we believe will benefit shareholders for the long term.
Grandeur Peak Emerging Markets Opportunities Fund GPEOX/GPEIX Open
Grandeur Peak Global Contrarian Fund GPGCX Open
Grandeur Peak Global Micro Cap GPMCX Open*
Grandeur Peak Global Opportunities Fund GPGOX/GPGIX Open
Grandeur Peak Global Reach Fund GPROX/GPRIX Open
Grandeur Peak Global Stalwarts Fund GGSOX/GGSXY Open
Grandeur Peak International Stalwarts Fund GPIOX/GPIIX Open
Grandeur Peak International Stalwarts Fund GISOX/GISYX Open
Grandeur Peak US Stalwarts Fund GUSYX Open
In the event the market has an unexpected rebound or the flows into the funds exceed our target asset levels, we are prepared to return back to a Soft Closed status to maintain a relatively small asset base and preserve the nimbleness for our research team. We will, of course, notify you in advance of any future changes to the funds’ status.
To learn more about any of our funds, call any of us on the client team (contacts below) or our shareholder services team at 855-377-7325. Additional information is also posted on our website: www.grandeurpeakglobal.com.
Best Regards,
Mark Siddoway, CFA, CAIA, MBA
Head of Client Relations
* The Grandeur Peak Global Micro Cap Fund is open through financial intermediaries to shareholders who currently hold a position in the Fund. Financial advisors with clients in the Fund are able to invest in the Fund for both existing as well as new clients. The Fund also remains open to all participants of retirement plans currently holding a position in the Fund.
The objective of all the Grandeur Peak Funds is long-term growth of capital. The Global Contrarian and US Stalwarts Funds are new and have limited operating history.
RISKS:
Mutual fund investing involves risks and loss of principal is possible. Diversification does not eliminate the risk of experiencing investment loss. Investing in small-cap funds will be more volatile and loss of principal could be greater than investing in large cap or more diversified funds.
An investor should consider investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses carefully before investing. To obtain a prospectus, containing this and other information, visit www.grandeurpeakglobal.com or call 1-855-377-PEAK (7325). Please read it carefully before investing.
Grandeur Peak Funds will deduct a 2.00% redemption proceeds fee on Fund shares held 60 days or less. For more complete information including charges, risks and expenses, read the prospectus carefully.