Fund managers matter, sometimes more than others. As more teams adopt the mantra “we’re a team,” if only as window-dressing, more than more manager changes are reduced to “one cog out, one cog in.” Nonetheless, we know that losing funds with new managers tend to outperform losing funds that hold onto their teams, while the opposite is true for winning funds. Strong funds with stable teams and stable assets outperform strong funds facing instability (Bessler, et al, 2010). Because of the great volatility of their asset class, equity managers matter rather more than fixed-income investors. (Sorry guys.)
And so each month we track the changes in teams, primarily at active, equity-oriented funds and ETFs.
| Ticker | Fund | Out with the old | In with the new | Dt |
| AIZAX | AB International | Sharon Fay is no longer listed as a portfolio manager for the fund. | Kent Hargis, Avi Lavi, Nelson Yu, Mark Phelps, and Daniel Charles Roarty will continue to manage the fund. | 6/20 |
| RMEAX | Aspiriant Risk-Managed Equity Allocation Fund | Effective June 10, 2020, Acadian Asset Management LLC no longer serves as a sub-adviser to the fund. Brendan Bradley, Ryan Taliaferro, Mark Birmingham, and Dan Lee will no longer serve as portfolio managers to the fund. | John A. Boselli joins Brian Ko, Marc Castellani, John Allen, Robert Tymoczko, and Ran Leshem on the management team. | 6/20 |
| BIRAX | BlackRock Advantage ESG U.S. Equity Fund | No one, but . . . | Travis Cooke is joined by Anna Hawley, Richard Mathieson, and Raffaele Savi on the management team. | 6/20 |
| SHSAX | BlackRock Health Sciences Opportunities Fund | No one, but . . . | Erin Xie is joined by Jeff Lee and Xiang Liu in managing the fund. | 6/20 |
| BGSAX | BlackRock Technology Opportunities Fund | No one, but . . . | Reid Menge joins Tony Kim on the management team. | 6/20 |
| AVGAX | BNY Mellon Dynamic Total Return Fund | Sinead Mary Colton is no longer listed as a portfolio manager for the fund. | Dimitri Curtil joins Vassilis Dagioglu, James Stavena, and Torrey Zaches in managing the fund. | 6/20 |
| BBVLX | Bridge Builder Large Cap Value Fund | Greg Savage is no longer listed as a portfolio manager for the fund. | Six new managers join the other dozen on the management team. | 6/20 |
| BDREX | Broadstone Real Estate Access Fund | Kate Davis is no longer listed as a portfolio manager for the fund. | Michael Comparato and Brian Buffone will now manage the fund. | 6/20 |
| CVMAX | Calvert Emerging Markets Equity Fund | Gary Greenberg will no longer serve as a portfolio manager for the fund, effective September 1, 2020. | Elena Tedesco and Kunjal Gala will continue to manage the fund. | 6/20 |
| CAFGX | Cavalier Fundamental Growth | Louis Navellier will no longer serve as a portfolio manager for the fund. In February 2020, the SEC won a judgment against Mr. Navellier’s firm for defrauding clients by misrepresenting returns. His Navellier funds and his ETF are long gone now and his Wikipedia page reports “Navellier currently travels the country hosting seminars for individual investors.” | Scott Wetherington will now manage the fund. | 6/20 |
| CCGSX | Chautauqua Global Growth Fund | No one, but . . . | Nathaniel Valarde, Haicheng Li, and Jesse Flores joins Brian Beitner in managing the fund. | 6/20 |
| CCWSX | Chautauqua International Growth Fund | No one, but . . . | Nathaniel Valarde, Haicheng Li, and Jesse Flores joins Brian Beitner in managing the fund. | 6/20 |
| CLOAX | Clough Global Long/Short Fund | Vincent Lorusso is no longer listed as a portfolio manager for the fund. | Robert Zdunczyk has joins Charles Clough in managing the fund. | 6/20 |
| DGROX | Delaware Global Real Estate Opps, which is expected to liquidate in August | Damon Andres, Babak Zenouzi, and Scott Hastings will no longer serve as portfolio managers for the fund. | Chris Gowlland will manage the fund. | 6/20 |
| FITRX | Delaware Total Return | Damon Andres and Babak Zenouzi have left the firm and will no longer serve as portfolio managers for the fund. | Stefan Löwenthal and Jürgen Wurzer will now manage the fund. | 6/20 |
| DDIIX | Delaware Wealth Builder Fund | Damon Andres and Babak Zenouzi have left the firm and will no longer serve as portfolio managers for the fund. | Stefan Löwenthal and Jürgen Wurzer will now manage the fund. | 6/20 |
| DHLAX | Diamond Hill Large Cap Fund | Micah Martin (a name shared by one of Augustana’s nicest basketball players) will no longer serve as a portfolio manager for the fund. | Charles Bath and Austin Hawley will continue to manage the fund. | 6/20 |
| SLANX | DWS Latin America Equity Fund | No one, but . . . | William Scott Piper joins Marcelo Pinheiro, Danilo Pereira, and Luiz Maria Ribeiro on the management team. | 6/20 |
| FADAX | Fidelity Advisor Dividend Growth Fund | No one, immediately, but Gordon Scott will no longer manage the fund, effective December 31, 2020. | Zachary Turner joins Gordon Scott and will continue to manage the fund upon his departure. | 6/20 |
| FNIAX | Fidelity Advisor New Insights Fund | John Roth will be leaving the management team on or about September 30, 2020. | Nidhi Gupta joins William Danoff in managing the fund. | 6/20 |
| FEXPX | Fidelity Export and Multinational Fund | Gordon Scott will no longer serve as a portfolio manager for the fund. | Jean Park will now manage the fund. | 6/20 |
| FCPVX | Fidelity Small Cap Value Fund | Derek Janssen no longer serves as co-manager of the fund. | Clint Lawrence will continue to manage the fund. | 6/20 |
| FEFAX | First Eagle Fund of America | As of August 10, 2020, Iridian Asset Management LLC will no longer serve as a subadviser to the fund. | Julien Albertini, Manish Gupta, and Christian Heck of First Eagle Investment Management, LLC will serve as portfolio managers upon Iridian’s resignation. The trio has no fund management experience and plans to fundamentally change the fund’s investment strategy to focused, dividend-paying equity. | 6/20 |
| FCVT | First Trust SSI Strategic Convertible Securities ETF | Ethan Ganz is no longer listed as a portfolio manager for the fund. | Stephen Wachtel joins George Douglas, Ravi Malik, Michael Opre, and Florian Eitner on the management team. | 6/20 |
| GSRAX | Goldman Sachs Rising Dividend Growth Fund | Ying “Susie” Wang is no longer listed as a portfolio manager for the fund. | Kyri Loupis joins Monali Vora, Aron Kershner, and Christopher Lvoff in managing the fund. | 6/20 |
| FSTEX | Invesco Energy | Norman MacDonal is no longer listed as a portfolio manager for the fund. | Kevin Holt will now manage the fund. | 6/20 |
| JIAFX | JHancock Multi-Asset High Income Fund | No one, but . . . | Caryn Rothman, Geoffrey Kelley, and John Addeo join Christopher Walsh and Nathan Thooft on the management team. | 6/20 |
| JIVIX | JHFunds2 International Value Fund | Peter Nori and Christopher Peel no longer manage the fund. | Joseph Feeney, Christopher Hart, Joshua Jones, and Joshua White will now manage the fund. | 6/20 |
| MSAUX | Morgan Stanley Inst Asia Opp Fund | Krace Zhou is no longer listed as a portfolio manager for the fund. | Anil Agarwal joins Kristian Heugh in managing the fund. | 6/20 |
| NCBIX | New Covenant Balanced Income Fund | Erin Garrett no longer serves as a portfolio manager to the fund. | Richard Bamford will continue to manage the fund. | 6/20 |
| NCICX | New Covenant Income Fund | Erin Garrett no longer serves as a portfolio manager to the fund. | Julien Scholnick, John Bellows, S. Kenneth Leech, Edmund Ingalls, Bill O’Malley, Richard Bamford, James Gubitosi, Mark Lindbloom, and Frederick Marki will continue to manage the fund. | 6/20 |
| PRESX | T. Rowe Price European Stock Fund | No one, immediately, but Dean Tenerelli will be stepping down from portfolio manager duties, effective October 1, 2020. | Tobias Mueller joins Dean Tenerelli and will continue managing the fund after Mr. Tenerelli’s departure. | 6/20 |
| TCOFX | Tactical Offensive Fixed Income Fund | Erin Garrett no longer serves as a portfolio manager to the fund. | Sean Simko, Time Sauemelch, and Richard Bamford will continue to manage the fund. | 6/20 |
| TORYX | The Torray Fund | Robert Torray relinquished his duties as President of the Trust and co-manager of the fund, which he started in 1990. Sad end to a storied career, but the fund has seen outflows in 123 of the past 125 months and has consistently trailed 90% of its peers over the past 15 years. | Jeffrey Lent will join Shawn Hendon in managing the fund. | 6/20 |
| THCGX | Thornburg Core Growth Fund | Ted Chang concluded his year of service as co-portfolio manager of the fund | Greg Dunn continues to serve as the portfolio manager of the fund | 6/20 |
| Various | Thornburg Short Duration Municipal Fund, Thornburg Limited Term Municipal Fund, Thornburg Intermediate Municipal Fund, Thornburg Strategic Municipal Income Fund, Thornburg California Limited Term Municipal Fund, Thornburg New Mexico Intermediate Municipal Fund, and Thornburg New York Intermediate Municipal Fund | Nicholos Venditti will conclude his service as co-portfolio manager of the funds. | Eve Lando has joined David Ashley in managing the funds. | 6/20 |
| TNSAX | Touchstone International Small Cap Fund | Stephen Dexter and David Dineen will no longer serve as portfolio managers for the fund. | Wayne Hollister will now manage the fund. | 6/20 |
| VVPLX | Vulcan Value Partners | No one, but . . . | McGavock Dunbar, we could so see him bringing a claymore to the office, joins C.T. Fitzpatrick in managing the fund. | 6/20 |
| VVPSX | Vulcan Value Partners Small Cap | No one, but . . . | McGavock Dunbar joins C.T. Fitzpatrick in managing the fund. | 6/20 |
| WCMRX | WCM Focused International Growth Fund | No one, but . . . | Sanjay Ayer joins Paul Black, Peter Hunkel, Michael Trigg, and Kurt Winrich on the management team. | 6/20 |
