A couple of this month’s nominally “new” funds are actually repackaged versions of existing products. Congress Small Cap Growth Fund is just the reorganized version of Century Small Cap Select Fund (CSMVX), a two-star small cap growth fund with a 17-year record. Long-time manager Alexander Thorndike gains a co-manager, Gregg O’Keefe. Similarly, Oak Ridge Global Resources & Infrastructure Fund is a new name for Ridgeworth Capital Innovations Global Resources and Infrastructure Fund (INNAX), a solid but tiny fund. Sadly, that might be the most interesting stuff going on this month.
AAMA Equity Fund (AMFEX)
AAMA Equity Fund will seek to generate long term capital appreciation. The plan is to work from the top down: they first rank the relative attractiveness of economic sectors to create a sector weighting in the portfolio, then rank firms in the sector for investment attractiveness. They then use a combination of equities (which can go beyond common stock) and ETFs to construct the portfolio. The fund will be managed by Robert Baker and Philip Voelker, both of Advanced Asset Management Advisors which has about $800 million in assets. The initial expense ratio is 0.97%, and the minimum initial investment will be $10,000.
AAMA Income Fund
AAMA Income Fund will seek current income with a secondary objective of preservation of capital. The plan is to invest in a diverse set of income-producing securities, allocated among a range of sectors based on credit spreads and market volatility. The fund will be managed by Robert Baker and Philip Voelker, both of Advanced Asset Management Advisors which has about $800 million in assets. The initial expense ratio is 0.71%, and the minimum initial investment will be $10,000.
AllianzGI Real Estate Debt Fund
AllianzGI Real Estate Debt Fund will seek total return in excess of traditional, shorter-duration fixed income products while managing portfolio risk. The plan is to invest primarily in a variety of shorter-duration real estate-related debt instruments, mostly North American and European commercial mortgage-backed securities. About 50% of the portfolio will be designated as “core” and the core will hold short-duration CMBS. The other 50% is “opportunistic” and can target other real-estate related assets plus some non-real estate securities. The fund will be managed by Malie Conway and Jonathan Yip, two fairly senior folks at Allianz. The initial expense ratio has not been released, and the minimum initial investment will be $1 million but it appears that, for example, Schwab or Scottrade will have to have a million invested. Those brokerages are then free to set their own investor minimums.
BNP Paribas AM U.S. Inflation-Linked Bond Fund
BNP Paribas AM U.S. Inflation-Linked Bond Fund will seek to outperform an inflation-linked bond index by investing in inflation-linked bonds. (Really.) The plan is to mostly buy TIPS, with the possibility of also owning “other varieties” of fixed-income securities. The fund will be managed by Cedric Scholtes, Jenny Yiu, and Ashay Khandelwal of Fischer Francis Trees & Watts, a global fixed-income manager with about $42 billion in assets. The initial expense ratio is 0.65%, and the minimum initial investment for the “retail” shares will be $2,500. “Investor” shares are $100,000 which sort of hints at the price tag of “Institutional” ones.
