International Research Journal of Finance and Economics ISSN 1450-2887 Issue 36 (2010) © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2010 http://www.eurojournals.com/finance.htm An Evaluation of the Attributes Considered by Investment Professionals in Selecting Mutual Funds: The Case of Turkey 1 Onur Gözbaşı Erciyes University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Turkey E-mail: onurgozbasi@gmail.com Tel: +90-352-4374937/30111; Fax: +90-352-4375239 Levent Çıtak Erciyes University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Turkey E-mail: lcitak@erciyes.edu.tr Tel: +90-352-4374937/30111 Abstract Over the past decade Turkey has been catching up with the developments in the global mutual fund industry. Using conjoint analysis, this study investigates the relative importance of the attributes considered by Turkish portfolio managers and investment advisors in selecting mutual funds. It also investigates how the levels of these attributes are valued. The findings indicate that the attributes that matter the most are listed in their order of importance as expense ratio, past performance and experience of the fund manager. While the affiliation of the fund and size of the fund appear to be of moderate importance, it is found that investment advisors and portfolio managers attach even less importance to the number of funds managed by a particular founder and the fund manager’s investment style. In the mutual fund industry with increasing diversification and competition, the results of the study is expected to contribute to the process of structuring the funds managed by founders and to offer an insight to individual investors in their mutual fund selection. Keywords: Mutual Fund Selection, Portfolio Manager, Investment Advisor, Conjoint Analysis. Jel Classification Codes: G20, G11 1. Introduction Becoming increasingly competitive, the mutual fund industry has lately been growing dramatically with a more complex structure and increasing diversification. Therefore, determining the salient characteristics of mutual funds demanded by investment professionals are of great importance for the mutual fund founders when introducing new funds and structuring the funds under their management. Furthermore, identifying such characteristics might guide small investors in their investment decisions. This paper aims to evaluate the attributes that portfolio managers and investment advisors consider 1 This study is a revised version of a paper presented at the 11th National Finance Symposium in Turkey.