These managers were chosen by Morningstar as the best of the decade because the “deftly steered investors through good times and bad“.

That’s saying something. Investing in the ’80’s and 90’s was pretty clear cut, but the 1st decade of the 21st century was anything but easy.

As with the best Fund Managers of 2009 award, the Best Manager of the Decade award is not just about overall returns, but rather the risks assumed by the manager to get those returns, as well as their stewardship of the funds.

Size is also a consideration, since it’s more meaningful (and challenging) to earn big returns with a large asset pool, than a small one.

Fixed Income

Bill Gross
PIMCO Total Return: 7.7%; Category Average: 5.5%

The winner for the Fixed Income category is legendary investor Bill Gross. As Morningstar puts it: “No other fund manager made more money for people than Bill Gross.”

The PIMCO Total Return Fund was $32 billion large at the start of the decade, but Gross didn’t let that hinder him. By the end of the decade, the fund held over $200 billion in assets but Gross was still able to outsmart the market and is still doing so today.

Domestic Equity

Bruce Berkowitz
Fairholme: 13.2%; Category Average: 0.01%

Winner of the Domestic Equity category is Bruce Berkowitz, who was a practical unknown when he started the Fairholme (FAIRX) fund in December of 1999. Back then, technology and telecom growth funds were the “new economy” and the thought of starting a value fund was laughable. That didn’t stop Berkowitz. His ability to stick to his value oriented philosophy has earned him not just great returns over the past decade, but the award for Best Domestic Equity Fund manager of the decade.

Foreign Equity

David Herro
Oakmark International: 8.2%; Category Average: 3.2%
Oakmark International Small Cap: 10.1%; Category Average: 6.1%

David Herro is not only an eclectic contrarian, he’s also been right more often than not over the past decade, or at least right when it counts. He’s another value investor (notice a theme here? ), but he focuses on only 50-60 stocks, and isn’t afraid to dive in when others flee – provided he sees value selling at a bargain.

His relatively small number of holdings mean his funds don’t also track the relevant benchmarks and peers, but that’s not always a bad thing. It can however, mean some additional risk and his funds have had poor performance in some years, but have always bounced back quite well.

Read more at Morningstar.

• The 6 Biggest Investing Mistakes Warren Buffett Avoids - and You Should Too! According to Burton G. Malkiel, a Princeton economics professor, and Charles D. Ellis, author of 'Winning the Loser's Game,' the only difference between them and Warren Buffet is that Warren Buffet hasn't made these mistakes. Of course, it's more than that but since you and I (or Malkiel and Ellis......
• Morningstar Announces Their Best Fund Managers of 2009! Morningstar has released their picks for Best Mutual Fund Managers of 2009. It's important to remember that the competition is intended as an acknowledgement of past achievements, not as a recommendation for future performance.. That being said, the rankings are determined by a number of factors, not just best return......
• Mutual Fund Monday: Morningstar Nominees for Fund Managers of the Year. Morningstar has released it's finalists for Funds Managers of the Year. Here are the highlights. Fixed-Income Manager of the Year Phil Condon and Rebecca Flinn, DWS Strategic High Yield Tax Free (SHYTX) Farnham, Kane, Landmann, Nucci*, Metropolitan West High Yield Bond (MWHYX) Dan Fuss, Kathleen Gaffney, Matthew Eagan, Elaine Stokes*,......
• Top Morningstar Bond Funds for July 2009. Morningstar has released their top 3 Bond Funds for June-July. Here's the list: High-yield bonds. T. Rowe Price Spectrum Income (RPSIX) This is a fund of funds. The management team invests in up to 9 T. Rowe Price funds in order to get exposure to all of the sectors of......
• Can You Time the Market? This Guy Says He Can. Meet Bob Parish. Mr. Parish lost about 70% of his retirement savings in the 2000-02 bear market, after the tech bubble burst. Feeling burned by his financial advisor, he struck out alone with what he had left and set out to time the market. Timing the market is generally considered......

• What is a Mutual Fund? Mutual fund is a corporate body, which works as an intermediary and invests in financial markets. Mutual funds collect money from the public and invest in financial instruments like equity, government securities, bonds, debentures etc.Investing through mutual funds is good for people who do not have much knowledge about......
• Vanguard Has 20 Actively Managed Mutual Funds that Beat S&P 500 Index Fund Vanguard, for those who did not know, has a few actively managed mutual funds, tax advantaged funds, and even a few sector specific funds.  All have varying fees/expense ratios, a few of them have very high investment minimums ($250,000 plus), and yes, even a few are closed off to new......
• Personal Retirement Plan Investment Options Good financial management consists of two different distinct facets, the first of which is learning how to make the best use out of your limited earned income in order to best meet your current expenses, and the second of which has to do with learning how to implement strategies that......
• What Would Jesus Do… With His Investments? Jesus, he walked on water, raised the dead, and turned water into wine.  Regardless of your religion, this guy would be great at a party.  Since his ceremonial birthday is coming up soon, it’s no better time to role out Christian oriented investment funds (via ScratchPad). FaithShares, an investment......
• One Year Investment Performance: Why Dollar Cost Averaging Works Well, we’re back where we started. The Dow Jones is creeping towards 10,000 in the midst of an economic recovery — at least, that’s what the general consensus is right now. Today, the Fed has decided to keep interest rates unchanged and near zero, which is going to be......

Morningstar has their Morningstar’s Six Top Candidates for International-Stock Manager of the Year available on their website.

This is worth a look because if you’re thinking of investing in international mutual funds, you’ll want to make sure the fund has a good manager. One way to pick good funds is to follow good managers.

With the market mayhem over the past year, the winners will really be separated from the losers – it’s hard to manage a successful fund under these conditions when you’re a follower engaged in group-think. Times like these allow the cream of the management crop to rise to the top.

That doesn’t mean that this is a list of the best for 2009 only. Each manager on this list has a solid, long term track record but has also done well so far this year.

Here’s the list:

• The Team at American Funds EuroPacific Growth (AEPGX)

• The Team at Dodge & Cox International Stock (DODFX)

• David Herro and Rob Taylor of Oakmark International (OAKIX)

• Brent Lynn of Janus Overseas (JAOSX)

• The Team at Manning & Napier Worldwide Opportunities (EXWAX)

• Justin Thomson of T. Rowe Price International Discovery (PRIDX)

You will have noticed that most of these are teams, and not individuals. Also, they are not official nominees, just front runners so far.

Read the full story to learn why they’re considered front runners.

• 5 Energy Stocks To Invest In. Introducing the "new, pragmatic approach to energy investing" (as it is called by SmartMoney) - also known as the having it both ways approach. It's a new way to invest in energy stocks, and it mimics what the big oil companies themselves are doing. It's a hedge, really. It's investing......
• Morningstar Announces Their Best Fund Managers of 2009! Morningstar has released their picks for Best Mutual Fund Managers of 2009. It's important to remember that the competition is intended as an acknowledgement of past achievements, not as a recommendation for future performance.. That being said, the rankings are determined by a number of factors, not just best return......
• Jim Cramer's Tips For Picking Stocks to Buy. I've just finished re-reading Jim Cramer's Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World and thought I would share some tips I found inside. This is a suggested list of the types of stocks to buy for a diversified portfolio. 1. Buy local. Cramer recommends that you buy stock in......
• Mutual Fund Monday - What 2009 Trends Mean for 2010. Many investors take the change in calendar year as an opportunity to assess their portfolios and the future, and hopefully get their portfolios aligned with the future direction of the stock market. One way in which to do this is to look back on the year that's passed and see......
• Best ETF's For... Kiplinger has released their annual "best of" edition, where they rate the best of just about everything. One of the categories is ETF's. I thought I'd share the picks, and some thoughts on them here, but you should check out the complete issue if you get a chance. Best ETF......

• Fortune 500's Failings Growing up I always thought the Fortune 500 was a list of the richest 500 people in the world. The knowledge that Fortune was a magazine and not just the name of a list had not yet been shared with me. You're not as naive as I was, so......
• Mutual Funds 101 One way that investors can pool their money is mutual funds, which allows them to invest together in a variety of different stocks. Each of the participating investors is charged a percentage fee based on what they invest so that the professional fund manager can receive payment for his work......
• Investment - Choice Between Direct Investment in Stocks and Investment in Mutual Funds BasicsMutual Funds (MFs) are primarily engaged in investing in stocks. Then why should not one invest in stocks directly and what is the need for these funds? This question is answered below:As investors, our priority always will be to focus higher profits in the shortest time. With this goal......
• Investing for Baby Boomers - A Book Review "You're Fifty - Now What?  Investing for the Second Half of Your Life" (Charles R. Schwab) I admit it, I'm a baby boomer.  That means I read books with words like "fifty" in the title, including this one.  It could have been titled "Investing for Baby Boomers" (as I've listed it in the......
• The Five Ingredients of a Solid Mutual Fund Investing in mutual funds has always been a bit easier than investing in single stocks. You know there’s much less risk because you’re not depending on a single company, and won’t have to worry about the inner-workings of just one business because you can instead rely on the fact that......