This "Financial Focus" column is prepared by Edward Jones Investments, headquartered in St. Louis. Jones includes branches throughout the nation, including Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

Looking for helpful hints about mutual funds? Here's some advice you won't regret: Read the prospectus.

But if the thought of trudging through all that tiny type turns you off, be consoled: Mutual fund prospectuses are now more reader-friendly.

The prospectus is a mutual fund's blueprint. It tells what the fund's managers can and cannot do with your money. It describes risk and limits how much risk a fund can take. It discloses the fund's overall purpose -- whether that means making profits as quickly as possible or seeking reasonable gains while first bringing in income and protecting your principal. And much more.

Mutual funds have for a long time provided investors with the best disclosure of any financial product in the world. The problem was that as mutual funds proliferated, the prospectus became more confusing.

The mutual fund industry has worked closely with the Securities and Exchange Commission to make prospectuses more readable without disturbing vital information. The new rules improve mutual fund prospectuses by, among other things, focusing the document on essential information about the particular fund.

Significant features of the new prospectus include:

-- A standardized summary of information about objectives, principal strategies, risks, performance and fees.

-- A bar chart to illustrate the volatility of the fund's total return over the past 10 years, and a table comparing the fund's return to an appropriate broad-based securities market index.

-- Narrative risk disclosure focusing on the fund's portfolio as a whole, rather than the risks associated with individual types of securities in the portfolio.

In addition to reforming the full prospectus, the SEC authorized optional use of the "profile," a concise new disclosure document designed to convey information essential to an investment decision. Investors can base their decisions on the profile, the full prospectus, or both. Whether investors use the profile, every fund is required to provide the full prospectus by the time it provides the statement confirming a purchase.

The industry and investors have put much effort into creating the new prospectus and profile. These changes are for your benefit. Read the prospectus -- it's excellent advice that's now a little easier to follow.

The Southeast Missourian does not recommend readers buy or sell stocks featured in this column, which is provided for informational purposes only.