QikReview: Foreign Large-Cap Funds - AllianceBernstein, American

Continuing with the series of (401)k funds reviews, below are reviews of the Foreign Large-Cap funds.

AllianceBernstein International (AIZAX.LW)

Category: Foreign Large Blend
Rating: 1
Capital Gains Exposure: -
Assets: $2.188 bil
Expense Ratio: 1.42%
Turnover Ratio: 59%
Yield: 1.92%
Redemption Period: 0 days
Redemption Fee: 0%
3-Year Total Cost: $855
Minimum Investment: $2,500
Comments: This fund invests into Giant (69), Large (27), and Medium (4) companies. It invests into the following sectors Telecom (7), Healthcare (9), Business Services (5), Financial Services (22), Consumer Goods (12), Industrial Materials (20), Energy (13), and Utilities (6). The split between countries is: Asia ex-Japan (5), UK (27), Japan (15), Germany (12), France (12), and Switzerland (10). The fund has only a 5-year history, which in itself is unimpressive and yet the performance during those 5 years has been even less impressive. It consistently ranks towards the bottom of the pack. It has 130 holdings and only 20% of assets in the top ten holdings. I don't really like it's sector not geographical allocation; the performance has been week and in addition to everything else, the fund is pretty expensive at $855 per $10,000 per 3-years.
Grade: D

American Funds EuroPacific Growth (AEPGX.LW)

Category: Foreign Large Blend
Rating: 5
Capital Gains Exposure: -
Assets: $71.157 bil
Expense Ratio: 0.74%
Turnover Ratio: 38%
Yield: 2.45%
Redemption Period: 0 days
Redemption Fee: 0%
3-Year Total Cost: $813
Minimum Investment: $250
Comments: This fund invests into Giant (53), Large (40), and Medium (7) companies. It invests into the following sectors Hardware (6), Telecom (10), Healthcare (10), Consumer Services (6), Financial Services (17), Consumer Goods (13), Industrial Materials (20), Energy (8), and Utilities (6). The split between countries is: Asia ex-Japan (4), UK (7), Japan (7), Germany (10), France (10), Switzerland (8), and Latin America (6). It has a huge number of holdings, 303, and only 18.7% in the top ten holdings. This fund is ranked in the top 10% for the 3-, 5-, and 10-year periods, but then again at this time it only takes a 6% total return to be ranked that high for the 10-year period. Essentially, this is a foreign index fund, albeit an expensive one. I like the allocation of this fund, but I'm not sure if it warrants such high fees.
Grade: B-

Full List of Current Series of 401(k) Fund Reviews:

• Introduction and Large-Cap Funds - American Funds Growth, Dodge & Cox Stock, Putnam Equity Income, State Street Equity 500 Index Service
• Foreign Large-Cap Funds - AllianceBernstein International, American Funds EuroPacific Growth
• Mid-Cap Funds - Alger MidCap Growth Institutional, Ariel
• Moderate Allocation Funds - Dodge & Cox Balanced, George Putnam Fund of Boston
• Goldman Sachs High Yield, Morgan Stanley Institutional Small Growth
• Fund Picks and Allocation Targets