The Mutual Fund Exchange

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In order to reduce the tax you pay on mutual funds held outside
of your IRA, in a taxable account, consider these alternatives:

* Tax-managed funds: A number of mutual funds have "tax-managed"
in their names. These funds attempt to take losses to offset
gains so that no net gains are passed through to investors. If
they must take gains, they try to hold stocks for a year or longer
before taking profits, in order to qualify for low-taxed long-term
gains.

* Index funds: These funds track an index such as the Standard &
Poor's 500. They generally do little trading so they may not
realize gains that have to be passed through to investors.

* Exchange-traded funds (ETFs): These are index funds that trade
like stocks. They enjoy special tax code treatment so they may be
even more tax-efficient than index mutual funds.

In many cases, index mutual funds and ETFs have low expenses.
This can boost the returns investors enjoy, over the long-term.