getting into closed funds

David_Snowball

The procedure will Bottom Line is that the editor and a writer decide on a topic that would interest readers, and the number of words that the resulting article is allocated. Typically a few hundred words. The writer interviews an expert (or me), writes an article that's sort of attributed to us, then runs the article past us for review and approval. That makes sense, of a sort, given their extremely low word limits; I'd still be clearing my voice at about the time that I hit the limit.

So here's What to do if you want in a closed fund (9/5/2023) which certainly is me-ish, but might not be quite so ... nuanced as it might be with unlimited space.

Devo

+1

msf

While Prof. Snowball's suggestions are all worth consideration, the situation is, as he wrote above, more nuanced.

Sometimes getting a gifted share does not enable you to invest more in the fund The Artisan Funds prospectus say that

You may open a new account in a closed Fund only if that account meets the Fund’s other criteria (for example, minimum initial investment) and ... you receive shares of the closed Fund as a gift from an existing shareholder of the Fund (additional investments generally are not permitted ..._

A similar technique to the one for getting into closed Artisan funds (investing $250K in Artisan funds that are open) does work for getting into PRWCX. T. Rowe Price's Summit Program provides access to closed funds; to qualify one must have $250K invested at T. Rowe Price.

Rollovers may not get you into a closed fund at T. Rowe Price if you don't already have shares in the fund. Several years ago TRP refused to let me open PRWCX in an IRA when I rolled over assets from my 401(k). But I could roll over shares I already owned in a different closed fund.

(That differs from Vanguard; my experience there is that Vanguard won't let you open a new position even if you're just transferring shares you already own from a different account.)

Perhaps things have changed at T. Rowe Price. Or perhaps there was something different between my situation and what Prof. Snowball was describing. I was not a new investor: my 401(k) was administered by T. Rowe Price and I had an existing IRA with TRP. I was rolling over an individual 401(k) not a vanilla defined contribution plan. My 401(k) did not allow me to open a position in PRWCX; some other defined contribution plans may.

The point is that while all the suggestions are good, they may or may not work depending on the fund company and little quirks that can foul things up. There's no harm in trying. And being a little obstinate

P.S. Vanguard, like other families mentioned above does let investors into some of its closed funds, so long as you have enough invested with them. Here, "enough" is $1M (Flagship status).

David_Snowball

I agree. Part of the "lost nuance" that I sort of referred to in the original post were two points that I kept making and that seemed too wordy: "in general, it's not even worth the effort" and "your results may vary (from adviser to adviser)."

msf

Slightly shorter: the grass is always greener ..., and YMMV.

One more anecdote on the former ... A long time ago I opened an account (at Columbia) in an Acorn family fund that was closed except when investing directly with the fund - one of the methods you gave in the Bottom Line interview. Further, the fund restricted ACAT transfers to a brokerage for six months after opening the new account.

So after opening the account I waited six months and then transferred the shares. That may have been around the time Wanger left (early 2000s) or perhaps later. The fund was never the same, ranging from run-of-the-mill to worse. As you wrote, "not even worth the effort".