Taxes are often considered a necessary evil. The topic evokes strong emotions. How we perceive taxes and how we feel about paying them are complex issues. For investors, two significant situations to avoid when it comes to taxes are:

• Focusing solely on how much of an investment gain could be lost to taxes
• Worrying so much about taxes that it adversely affects decision...

Many investors are wondering why their international equity index funds have recently underperformed a benchmark such as the MSCI EAFE Index. This underperformance is largely due to the effects of fair value pricing as it applies to U.S. investors who are invested in non-U.S. equity mutual funds. As the table shows, fair value pricing is the reason for the reported underperformance for the...