Columbia Acorn International Fund Z 5-Yr. Avg. Annual Total Return: 22.2% Expense Ratio: 0.94% Managers Zach Egan and Louis Mendes are long term investors who search the globe for high growth rates and strong balance sheets. Their 4.8 billion portfolio contains a bundle of 189 diverse stocks.

Forward International Small Company 5-Yr. Avg. Annual Total Return: 25% Expense Ratio: 1.60% Pictet, a Swiss asset manager, has more than 42% of the $300 million portfolio in European Companies.

Janus Overseas Fund 5-Yr. Avg. Annual Total Return: 22% Expense Ratio: 0.91% Manager Brent Lynn concentrates on fast growing companies, with a current focus on Hong Kong, Brazil, India, and Japan. The $7.9 billion fund has a balanced mix of large, mid and small companies. Also, its low expense ratio makes it the cheapest foreign fund to own

Oppenheimer International Small Company 5-Yr. Avg. Annual Total Return: 31% Expense Ratio: 1.20% Seeing as nearly 40% of the $2.6 billion fund is invested in Canadian energy and mining stocks, the mutual fund focuses on investments in Asia and Canada, leaving little room for European stocks- merely 15%. Manager Rohit Sah likes young companies that have gone public within the past five years. One drawback for little investors: required minimum investment of $50,000

T. Rowe Price International Discovery 5-Yr. Avg. Annual Total Return: 25.9% Expense Ratio: 1.24% Jim Thomson invests nearly half of his $2.7 billion growth fund in European companies, along with 25% allocated to companies in the Pacific Rim. Thomson like growth companies such as: Financial Technologies, an Indian outsourcer of specialty financial software; Austar Communications, an Australian satellite-television company; and SGL Carbon, a German manufacturer of carbon, graphite and composite materials