text: which balanced fund was ranked number one by lipper inc. in 2005?   here are the top 20, the first % is the actual gain. the second % is the gain in excess of expectation given the volatility for each fund.(i.e. the ability of the fund manager to get good return with minimal risk)  this ranking is from http://www.fasttrack.net which uses  much more powerful methods than simple return ranking like lipper. for my money, #2 fbalx is the obvious pick (great ranking , no load)  1,svbax,jhancock balanced-a,13.36%,9.55% 2,fbalx,fidelity balanced/304,10.68%,6.45% 3,frbsx,franklin balance sheet investment-a/150,10.90%,5.77% 4,agbyx,riversou global balanced-y/disc,9.59%,5.60% 5,webax,westwood balanced-aaa,9.29%,5.45% 6,fgblx,fidelity global balanced/334,9.00%,5.21% 7,glrbx,jamesadv balanced golden rainbow-a,8.37%,4.93% 8,tibax,thornbur income builder-a,8.51%,4.71% 9,mpbax,msinstrs balanced,7.90%,4.30% 10,jablx,janus inst:aspen balanced,7.95%,4.27% 11,abwax,alliance bernstein balanc wealth strat-a,7.73%,4.13% 12,jabax,janus balanced,7.75%,4.07% 13,fabax,firstam balanced-a,8.00%,4.05% 14,jabrx,janus adv:balanced-s/504,7.67%,3.97% 15,ablrx,alger inst:balanced-i,8.04%,3.97% 16,brbpx,bridgewa balanced portfolio,6.96%,3.78% 17,pabyx,putnam asset alloc:balanced-y,7.26%,3.73% 18,sibax,sit balanced,7.51%,3.56% 19,pabax,putnam asset alloc:balanced-a,6.99%,3.48% 20,rimbx,rainier balanced,7.32%,3.47%