USAA

A conversation with USAA's Paul Vincent

Among the new recruits is an 11-person team.

Self-directed brokerage accounts at the firm hold about 20% of their portfolios in cash.

Because of bank sweeps, veterans and their families' accounts will default to a 26-basis point APY on cash — down from the 1%-2% returns they were getting from money market funds.

About 350 employees at USAA may lose their jobs due to the deal.

The brokerage may pay about $2 billion for the additional advisory clients, according to reports.

Slower economic growth and increased market volatility have investors seeking large companies with healthy balance sheets.

Its purchase includes the manager’s mutual fund and ETF businesses.

Recently, higher interest rates and stock market volatility have undermined gains.

The good times in munis aren’t likely to last as the Fed’s push to boost interest rates will hamper future results, an expert says.

Fees were nearly half the price of the top-performing active funds.

The average annualized return of the top 20 funds has been nearly 15%.

The S&P 500 has been on a tear, but there are always outperformers — see who bested the competition.

To add insult to injury, these returns didn’t even come cheap. The average expense ratio was more than 1%.

Emerging markets, value and small-cap funds dominate the list, but other factors need to be considered, as well.

The average fund posted a 12.6% annual gain compared to 7.6% for the S&P 500.

These investments offered better returns than the broader fixed-income world in recent years, but the risk/reward equation leans heavier on risk.

USAA Capital held over $513 million in market value of the Wall Street giant’s large-cap, emerging market and international ActiveBeta funds.

These funds have the smallest beta scores, either positive or negative, indicating the least variability from market returns.

To add insult to injury, these losers charge high fees – 12 of the 20 have expense ratios over 1%.