Shannon Zimmerman's Biography

Shannon Zimmerman, Ph.D., is a Fool for mutual funds. He has invested in them for more than 15 years, and before signing on with the Fool, he analyzed them for Morningstar, the leading mutual fund research house for individual investors.

At Morningstar, Shannon wrote extensively about both bond and equity funds, and his work has appeared in widely read publications such as FundInvestor, Morningstar Mutual Funds, and the popular Morningstar Funds 500 and Guide to Mutual Funds books. He is a frequent commentator in the financial press, too, and his remarks have appeared in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Barron's.

Shannon was Morningstar's lead analyst on many of Fidelity's most popular stock funds, and he is also an expert on 529 college savings plans and socially responsible investing. The guy claims to know a fair amount about 19th century British poetry, too: His doctorate is in literature.

Writing in a lively, accessible style, Shannon cracks the code of the mutual fund industry, focusing on the things savvy fund investors care about most: strategies, risks, performance, and costs. His sound advice and expert knowledge will help you narrow the vast universe of funds to just those select few that meet his exacting Foolish criteria.