Fund Evaluator:

American Century Balanced I Overview

American Century Balanced I (ABINX) is an actively managed Allocation Moderate Allocation fund. American Century Investments launched the fund in 2000.

The investment seeks long-term capital growth and current income. For the equity portion of the fund, the fund will generally invest in large capitalization companies the advisor believes show business improvement using a proprietary multi-factor model that combines fundamental measures of a stock’s value and growth potential with sustainability (environmental, social, and governance) characteristics.

About American Century Balanced I (ABINX)

There are 10 members of the management team with an average tenure of 2.93 years: Joseph Reiland (2021), Scott Wilson (2026), Richard Weiss (2026), Justin Brown (2021), Charles Tan (2018), Radu Gabudean (2026), Robert Bove (2021), Stephen Bartolini (2024), Jason Greenblath (2021), Vidya Rajappa (2026). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: S&P 500 (TR) (1970) index with a weighting of 100% and Bloomberg US Agg Bond TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. American Century Balanced I has 574 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 24.1% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

American Century Balanced I is part of the Allocation global asset class and is within the Allocation fund group. American Century Balanced I has 3.4% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 57.9%. There is 0.7% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.5% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 39.4% (36.7% domestic bond, 2.7% foreign bond and 0.3% convertible bond). American Century Balanced I has 1.2% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $69 million in total assets, which is below the $2 billion average for the Moderate Allocation category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

ABINX Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The American Century Balanced I expense ratio is above average compared to funds in the Moderate Allocation category. American Century Balanced I has an expense ratio of 0.69%, which is 31% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a B. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. American Century Balanced I has a portfolio turnover rate of 84%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 52% for the Moderate Allocation category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, American Century Balanced I returned -0.3%, which earned it a grade of C, as the Moderate Allocation category had an average return of -0.3%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all funds in that category.

American Century Balanced I has a trailing yield of 1.73%, which is below the 1.97% category average. The fund normally distributes its income quarterly and its capital gains annually.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

American Century Balanced I Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 4.5%, 1.9 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of F. The fund has returned 10.1% over the past year (grade of F), 10.2% over the past three years (grade of F) and 5.4% per year over the past five years (grade of F) and 8.0% per year over the past 10 years (grade of D).

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