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Oldest mutual funds: name changes

Hello: newbie here. I know this topic of "oldest funds" has been covered before; it was an internet search for it that first led me to Mutual Fund Observer. Feel free to answer with a simple link to posts that pre-date my joining.
Typical Internet search hits for this topic (e.g., investopedia) focus on the oldest funds "still active today." That's not very helpful for my purposes.[survivorship bias etc.] I have the 1939 SEC report (Part 2) which shows all the largest mutual funds in existence as of 1936 *under their names at the time.* And older copies of the Wiesenberger yearbook can sometimes track what happened to items on the SEC fund list (e.g., Quarterly Income Shares, 4th largest as of 1936, was merged into American Business Shares, a Calvin Bullock fund).
But it is hit and miss. Just by chance did my eyes fall on a note that "Incorporated Investors" (2nd largest) became Putnam Investors in 1966.
I'm still trying to track down the current name of "State Street Investment." (3rd largest, under that name through 1965).
That's one specific query. Anyone have some tips? A database (in my dreams) that tracks defunct mutual fund names, or would surface the fact that Putnam Investors used to be called Incorporated Investors"?

Comments

  • Vanguard Wellington is reputed to be one of the oldest surviving funds, with an inception date of 7/1/1929 .
  • carew388 said:

    Vanguard Wellington is reputed to be one of the oldest surviving funds, with an inception date of 7/1/1929 .

    But those are the easy cases: Wellington and Mass Investors Trust, still around, still the same name, performance record from the beginning on Morningstar. But what happened to American Business Shares, or Affiliated funds, or any of the other once large funds no longer apparently operating under the same name, and perhaps "disappeared" by new management to obscure poor long term returns?

    That's where I struggle.

  • msf
    edited June 2022
    Here are a couple of threads that may help:
    Oldest Mutual Funds Still in Existence (2019 thread)
    Second Oldest Stock Fund Is As Nimble As A Teenager (2014 thread)

    As to the merger of Quarterly Income Shares into American Business Shares in 1944, you can find the NYTimes story reporting it here. This was a case of the minnow ($5M company) swallowing the whale ($21M).

    According to a 1942 NYTimes article, American Business Shares was sponsored by Lord, Abbett Co., Inc.

    According to the SEC, American Business Shares changed its name on April 4, 1976 to Lord Abbett Income Fund, Inc., and from that to Lord Abbett US Government Securities Fund, Inc. on January 27, 1986.

    Again according to the SEC, that first change involved a "change from Delaware to Maryland corporation accompanied by change in name, fundamental investment objective and institution of policy requiring automatic redemption of small accounts"

    In 1997, the SEC announced the fund's impending demise:
    A notice has been issued giving interested persons until May 13 [1997] to request a hearing on an application filed by Lord Abbett U. S. Government Securities Fund, Inc. (formerly American Business Shares, Inc.) for an order under Section 8(f) of the Investment Company Act declaring that applicant has ceased to be an investment company.
    https://www.sec.gov/news/digest/1997/dig042297.pdf

    As to Affiliated Fund, Inc. that's easy. Do a search on the name, you'll come up with Lord Abbett Affiliated Fund. That fund's webpage gives its inception date as 5/14/34, noting that the fund changed its investment strategy on 1/1/50.
    https://www.lordabbett.com/en/strategies/mutual-funds/affiliated-fund.class-a.html
  • msf said:

    Here are a couple of threads that may help:
    Oldest Mutual Funds Still in Existence (2019 thread)
    Second Oldest Stock Fund Is As Nimble As A Teenager (2014 thread)
    ...

    Much obliged, msf. I had seen the 2019 thread but needed to reread it (e.g., your history of the Scudder funds). The 2014 thread was also illuminating, this post follows up on it.

    I am starting from the list of 36 open-ended companies in the 1939 SEC report (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/010424070), Part 2, p. 877, Table 264 (if anyone is curious about this "survivorship bias free" list; it shows all open-ended companies with greater than $500,000 under management as of 1935. For reference, MITTX already had $81 million under management by that year, so many of these were tiny even for then).

    The 2014 thread mentions the CGM, Pioneer and Seligman funds as among the oldest ten. But none of these names appears in the SEC list. Nor do any of these names appear in the 1946 Wiesenberger. So, sometime after 1945, three funds that were on the SEC list had a name change or were merged into another, per your discussion of Century Shares Trust. Or the way 'First Investment Counsel' (on the SEC list) became Scudder, Stevens & Clark, which I wouldn't have known without your post (Wiesenberger doesn't mention the older name).

    Anyone know what the original names of the CGM, Pioneer and Seligman funds were?

  • msf
    edited June 2022
    Pioneer Fund was founded in 1928 by Philip Carret as the Fidelity Mutual Trust (not on any list in the SEC study).
    https://www.corporateknights.com/responsible-investing/a-short-history-of-responsible-investing/



    On p. 735, both Loomis-Sayles Mutual Fund, Inc. and Loomis-Sayles Second Fund, Inc. appear. Only the "second" fund appears on p. 877's short list.

    "Prior to establishing CGM, Mr. Heebner was at Loomis, Sayles & Company where he managed [CGM Mutual Fund], then known as Loomis Sayles Mutual Fund."
    https://cgmfunds.com/cgm-docs/2021-12-31-mutual-annual.pdf

    Likewise, on p. 738 is listed "Second Investment Fund of Security Management Co. (predecessor of Broad Street Investing Co., Inc., The)". Broad Street Investing Corp. was the name of Seligman Common Stock Fund prior to April 26, 1982.
    https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/14358/000001435800000002/0000014358-00-000002.txt
    https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/65/J-W-Seligman-Co-Inc.html
    The Security Management Company has presented to shareholders in its First and Second Investment Funds a plan for the combining of the two funds into a single corporation to be called the Broad Street Investing Company. It will be organized in Maryland with 500,000 shares of common stocks of no-par value. ...
    NYTimes, October 14, 1929, p. 44
    https://www.nytimes.com/1929/10/14/archives/investment-fund-merger-security-management-plans-to-unite-two-in.html

    There's a much more complete list of investment trusts and investment companies in Appendix A of Part 1 of the SEC study, starting on p. 114.
    https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=1CoWAQAAMAAJ
  • msf said:

    Pioneer Fund was founded in 1928 by Philip Carret as the Fidelity Mutual Trust (not on any list in the SEC study).
    https://www.corporateknights.com/responsible-investing/a-short-history-of-responsible-investing/



    On p. 735, both Loomis-Sayles Mutual Fund, Inc. and Loomis-Sayles Second Fund, Inc. appear. Only the "second" fund appears on p. 877's short list.

    "Prior to establishing CGM, Mr. Heebner was at Loomis, Sayles & Company where he managed [CGM Mutual Fund], then known as Loomis Sayles Mutual Fund."
    https://cgmfunds.com/cgm-docs/2021-12-31-mutual-annual.pdf

    Likewise, on p. 738 is listed "Second Investment Fund of Security Management Co. (predecessor of Broad Street Investing Co., Inc., The)". Broad Street Investing Corp. was the name of Seligman Common Stock Fund prior to April 26, 1982.
    https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/14358/000001435800000002/0000014358-00-000002.txt
    https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/65/J-W-Seligman-Co-Inc.html

    The Security Management Company has presented to shareholders in its First and Second Investment Funds a plan for the combining of the two funds into a single corporation to be called the Broad Street Investing Company. It will be organized in Maryland with 500,000 shares of common stocks of no-par value. ...
    NYTimes, October 14, 1929, p. 44
    https://www.nytimes.com/1929/10/14/archives/investment-fund-merger-security-management-plans-to-unite-two-in.html

    There's a much more complete list of investment trusts and investment companies in Appendix A of Part 1 of the SEC study, starting on p. 114.
    https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=1CoWAQAAMAAJ
    I really appreciate it, mfs. I had not looked at Part I of the SEC report. Glad I found mutualfundobserver.com!
  • T. Rowe Price Balanced Fund RPBAX was formed in 1939. Don't have a link other than the TRP website for the fund. Not sure if it's had the same name?
  • msf
    edited June 2022
    Not sure if it's had the same name?
    That would be a good guess. But it wasn't quite a name change. Kiplinger says that T. Rowe Price only started its first mutual fund in 1950.
    https://www.kiplinger.com/article/investing/t041-c009-s002-top-funds-from-t-rowe-price.html

    In 1992, T. Rowe Price buried the real history of this fund (which existed at the time) and substituted the history of a different fund, Axe-Houghton Fund B, which had an earlier inception date. In short, RPBAX was created well after 1939, but you'll never know when.

    According to RPBAX's SAI,
    On August 31, 1992, the T. Rowe Price Balanced Fund acquired substantially all of the assets of the Axe-Houghton Fund B, a series of Axe-Houghton Funds, Inc. As a result of this acquisition, the SEC requires that the historical performance information of the Balanced Fund be based on the performance of Fund B. Therefore, all performance information of the Balanced Fund prior to September 1, 1992, reflects the performance of Fund B and investment managers other than T. Rowe Price.
    In 1992, the NYTimes reported:
    T. Rowe Price, a large no-load family ... took over six funds with total assets of $546 million from the struggling insurance company USF&G.
    ...
    five [of the] USF&G funds, and the funds they have been mingled with, are Axe-Houghton Growth, now part of T. Rowe Price New America Growth; Axe-Houghton Income, into T. Rowe Price New Income; RMC European Emerging Companies, T. Rowe Price European Stock; Axe-Houghton Fund B, T. Rowe Price Balanced; USF&G Cash Reserves, T. Rowe Price Prime Reserve.
    https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/03/your-money/IHT-briefcase.html

    Here's a little bit more about Axe-Houghton Fund B and USF&G:
    Prior to 1992, Axe-Houghton Associates was named Axe Core Investors, and was wholly-owned by Axe-Houghton Management, a subsidiary of insurer USF&G. Axe-Houghton Management’s services included mutual funds and institutional asset management. In 1992, concurrent with USF&G’s sale of Axe-Houghton Management’s mutual fund business to T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., senior management of Axe-Core Investors purchased the institutional asset management business of Axe-Houghton Management. Axe-Core Investors subsequently changed its name to Axe-Houghton Associates. In 1993, the Hoenig Group Inc., a publicly-traded financial services company, purchased Axe-Houghton Associates.
    http://www.managerreview.com/su_companydetails.php?iCompanyId=906&CompanyName=Axe-Houghton Assoc.

    Axe-Houghton Fund B apparently dates back to August 5, 1938, but it might not have been offered for sale until its stated 1939 inception date. I'll leave it for others to resolve that minor discrepancy.
    https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_de/366229
  • mfs, do you have a blog or other publication outlet? I want to follow:-)
    Astonishing about the T. Rowe Price acquisition. A reminder that any time there is an old date for a name that doesn't match slightly younger yearbooks, Morningstar or Wiedenberger, then probably there is a merger of this kind, following perhaps arcane SEC rules about 'a fair rendition of the full history.' Or not, as in the two examples from your earlier post.
    I can add one tidbit. The "Administered Fund Second" is in Table 264 of the 1939 SEC report, established 1934. The 1946 Wiedenberger yearbook indicates that Axe Houghton took it over and made it part of AH A. AH A and B were still separate as of 1966 (my latest W*). AH B was very small in 1946, too small for Wiedenberger to discuss, but had come into its own by 1955.
    My guess is that both A and B were consolidated prior to the T. Rowe Price merger, but that's supposition. Both were balanced funds, at least by 1955.
  • Rbrt said:

    I don’t think this is what you are looking for - but interesting, none the less.

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/these-4-funds-launched-before-the-great-depression-still-deliver-for-investors-2017-01-07

    Thanks Rbrt. The oldest closed-end fund is older than the oldest open-end fund, and the closed-end category had far more assets at the end of the 1920s. So in theory, if I want to track the long term 'returns actually received by mutual fund owners' I would include these in my sample. Both the SEC 1939 report and Wiesenberger through at least the 1960s give closed-end expense ratios and performance.

    Unfortunately, almost all the early closed-end funds were leveraged, and most were not diversified common stock funds exclusively. And there was an enormous bust after 1929, on the order of the South Seas bubble, with incredible survivorship bias when examined from a later period. So, regretfully, I have (thus far) decided not to include closed-ended funds.

    But it's a choice I'll have to defend, and its good to be reminded of the Barron's piece.
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