Fund Evaluator:

American Century One Choice 2050 A Overview

American Century One Choice 2050 A (ARFMX) is an actively managed Allocation Target-Date 2050 fund. American Century Investments launched the fund in 2008.

The investment seeks the highest total return consistent with its asset mix. The fund is a "fund of funds," meaning that it seeks to achieve its objective by investing in other American Century mutual funds (the underlying funds) that represent a variety of asset classes and investment styles. The target date in the fund name (2050) refers to the approximate year an investor plans to retire and likely would stop making new investments in the fund.

About American Century One Choice 2050 A (ARFMX)

There are 4 members of the management team with an average tenure of 14.05 years: Scott Wilson (2008), Richard Weiss (2010), Radu Gabudean (2013), Vidya Rajappa (2018). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: Russell 3000 TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and Bloomberg US Agg Bond TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. American Century One Choice 2050 A has 22 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 75.2% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

American Century One Choice 2050 A is part of the Allocation global asset class and is within the Allocation fund group. American Century One Choice 2050 A has 30.7% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 46.2%. There is 25.5% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.4% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 25.8% (20.7% domestic bond, 5.2% foreign bond and 0.2% convertible bond). American Century One Choice 2050 A has 1.9% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $161 million in total assets, which is below the $1 billion average for the Target-Date 2050 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.

ARFMX 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 One Choice 2050 A expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Target-Date 2050 category. American Century One Choice 2050 A has an expense ratio of 1.13%, which is 65% higher than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a F. 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 One Choice 2050 A has a portfolio turnover rate of 12%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.1 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 22% for the Target-Date 2050 category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, American Century One Choice 2050 A returned -0.1%, which earned it a grade of A, as the Target-Date 2050 category had an average return of -0.8%. 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 One Choice 2050 A has a trailing yield of 1.90%, which is above the 1.58% category average. The fund normally distributes its income annually 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 One Choice 2050 A Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 7.3%, 3.1 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of F. The fund has returned 13.9% over the past year (grade of F), 11.8% over the past three years (grade of F) and 5.7% per year over the past five years (grade of F) and 8.8% per year over the past 10 years (grade of F).

For more mutual fund grades, analysis and screening tools to help your investment discovery, join AAII for a $2, full-access trial. Learn more here: https://invest.aaii.com/membership.

Otherwise, for more information about American Century One Choice 2050 A, including its riskiness, submit your email to unlock the rest of the article.