Some fund families that emphasize value investing are simply turning away money.

A. There are 8,000 mutual funds, and a good fund family might have 60 or 80 choices.

Even now, many fund families still manage returns on equity of more than 25 percent.

Remember that switching funds, even within the same fund family, can have tax consequences.

But trying to buy from more than one fund family requires much effort.

Now they are creating their own family of fund families.

Many of the fund families feel they have no choice.

The biggest funds and fund families get lots of attention.

But for an entire fund family to be in the lower reaches seems more than mere bad luck.

These conclusions are based on a statistical study of fund families as a group.