Each month we round up the bits and pieces of industry news, from name changes to fund liquidations, that strike us as consequential but not consequential enough to warrant a stand-alone story. Perhaps distracted by the market’s recent turmoil, advisers have authorized far fewer changes this month than in most over the past five years. Continue reading
Dear friends,
Welcome to autumn! The leaves are only hinting at the changes to come and my tomatoes tenaciously insist that it’s still August and they’re still going to ripen. But the 40 degree nights and yesterday’s pictures from Montana Continue reading
“The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern.”
John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, aka Lord Acton, “Letter to Mary Gladstone” (24 April 1881)
The continued shrinking of liquidity has been a continued concern of mine. We are at a point where the danger signals are again blinking, except the danger will come not from the direction Continue reading
Good news: The US stock indexes are at, or quite near, all-time highs!
Bad news: The US stock indexes are at, or quite near, all-time highs.
Good news: the 3rd quarter of 2018 had the highest returns over any quarter in over five years!
Bad news: the 3rd quarter of 2018 had the highest returns over any quarter in over five years.
Good news: the advance in Continue reading
“But we in it shall be remembered —
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers …”
Shakespeare
Nearly 400 civilians and military participated on September 29th in the 7th annual March for the Fallen event at Fort Indiantown Gap’s army training campus. The march honors fallen soldiers that have “given the ultimate sacrifice,” so that “we can watch the sun come up like we see on this beautiful fall morning over a free country,” stated Major General Anthony Carrelli at the 6am welcome ceremony.
More than 110 of the Continue reading
Before funds can be offered to the public, they’ve got to be submitted to the SEC which has 70 days to review the application. That means that funds hopeful of launching by December 30th need to be filed by October 15th. This month’s 15 new funds, including offerings from both DoubleLine and T. Rowe Price, represent the first part of that year-end wave. Continue reading
Yikes, the world is spinning faster and faster! In the course of a normal month we’ll highlight 60-70 manager changes in equity and allocation funds. We mostly skip bond funds because, frankly, it’s a danged rare fixed income team that’s materially affected by the departure of a single individual. This month, though, brought a record 105 manager changes.
By far the most consequential was the fission of Artisan’s outstanding global value team, which has been nominated six times for Morningstar’s Continue reading
The imminence of Halloween reveals itself in the deadened thud as the walking dead move toward the graveyard. Summer saw a curious lull in fund liquidations and manager changes both, but the end of summer is ending that reprieve. Our mid-September and October issues recount 70 obituaries, the vast majority of which were announced in the past 30 days. A precious few were high-performing funds that couldn’t attract attention. There seems to be a pattern in the remainder: lots of funds designed to Continue reading
Dear friends,
Welcome to the mid-September issue of Mutual Fund Observer. And thanks for your patience in waiting for it. It has been a rare summer.
In some ways, this summer ended much as last summer did. Our September 2017 issue started with news of Continue reading
The folks at Litman Gregory Fund Advisors, LLC, of Walnut Creek, California are excited to launch their High Income Alternatives Fund, which “seeks to generate a high level of current income from diverse sources, consistent with the goal of capital preservation over time.”
After months of advisor selection and due diligence, the fund will launch September 28, 2018. Here are links to recently published fund commentary/fact sheet and webinar registration. The webinar will occur Continue reading