The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition investing columnists and bloggers write a lot about ETFs because they are a cheap, flexible and effective vehicle for investors of all types. The Globe's Rob Carrick writes, however, we have to give mutual funds their due as the investment of the masses. There are now about 400 ETFs listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, but just one of them ranks among the 20 largest fund products in Canada. Total investment in the Big 20 funds was $178-billion at Sept. 30, which compares with $73-billion for all TSX-listed ETFs. Nine of the Big 20 funds are products of Royal Bank of Canada's fund arm. Be ready if you are an RBC client and be careful to separate the excellent RBC Canadian Dividend from also-rans such as RBC Balanced. Funds that mix stocks and bonds dominate the Big 20 list, and the monthly sales figures reflect the same pattern on an industry-wide basis. Clearly, though, investors and their advisers could be more discerning about which balanced funds they buy. An example of an underperforming balanced fund behemoth is RBC Balanced, which has lagged the average for its peers in the Canadian neutral balanced category over time periods from two to 20 years.