Her advice is to review fund portfolios and act now to minimize taxes in April.

One potential problem is that most directors oversee many fund portfolios simultaneously.

The study reviewed 566 international and global stock fund portfolios, of which 156, or 27.6 percent, used subadvisers.

The funds also make sense for investors who do not want to put too much time or effort into creating a fund portfolio for themselves.

If steady returns with less risk are more important to you, the fund portfolios may be preferable.

"The only way to get these stocks into mutual fund portfolios is for managers to buy them, and that will push up prices," he said.

But in general, a fund of funds is a very costly way to build a fund portfolio.

Investors can choose from three fund portfolios - conservative, moderate and aggressive growth.

In fact, the study found that the performance of most fund portfolios would improve markedly if the owners just left well enough alone.

That results in a fund portfolio with less volatility, making for an even better investment than any of the funds on their own.