Which mutual fund websites for investors stand out from the rest? Corporate Insight just released a new report on the efficacy of retail customer websites from 18 mutual fund companies. The study examined the education resources each of these companies' websites offered to investors.

The report states that most mutual fund firms have educational material somewhere on their websites, while other companies stand far behind.

Several fund firms, in Corporate Insight's eyes, lead the pack in terms of quality for their educational resource tools. Companies like Oppenheimer Funds and Fidelity tailored their educational tools to cater to particular groups of investors. Corporate Insight praised OppFunds for dedicating a large amount of its educational resources to underserved groups including women and Gen Xers, as well as creating an educational microsite for parents hoping to find affordable options for college.

Fidelity's Web site, according to Corporate Insight, contains a vast wealth of product and service information for clients that are integrated with their education tools, according to the report.

Meanwhile, Corporate Insight lauded American Century's and T. Rowe Price's educational resources for involving more multimedia. American Century's offerings revolve around their extensive selection of articles which are grouped by topic. In addition, the Web site also features their flash-based My Whatever Plan that helps novice investors to finance their long and short-term goals. For T. Rowe Price, shortly after revamping its Web site in 2008, the company's Web site introduced a new tab called "Planning & Research" to its Web site for all educational information, new Flash-based video segments, a collection of reports and a site for children called the T. Rowe Price Learning Center.

Corporate Insight covered 18 companies in the study, of which eight have an education tab on their website. 

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