September 2015, Funds in Registration

By David Snowball

American Beacon Bridgeway Large Cap Growth Fund

American Beacon Bridgeway Large Cap Growth Fund will seek long-term total return on capital, primarily through capital appreciation.  Bridgeway is selling their LCG fund to American Beacon, pending shareholder approval. The fund will still be managed by John Montgomery and the Bridgeway team. The initial expense ratio will be 1.20%, rather above the current Bridgeway charge. The minimum initial investment is $2500. 

Aristotle Small Cap Equity Fund

Aristotle Small Cap Equity Fund will seek long-term capital appreciation by investing in high quality, small cap businesses that are undervalued. The fund will be managed by David Adams and Jack McPherson. The initial expense ratio will be 1.15%. The minimum initial investment is $2,500.

Aristotle Value Equity Fund

Aristotle Value Equity Fund will seek long-term capital appreciation by investing mostly in undervalued mid- and large-cap stocks. The fund will be managed by Howard Gleicher, Aristotle’s CIO. The initial expense ratio will be 0.68%. The minimum initial investment is $2,500.

Aston/River Road Focused Absolute Value Fund

Aston/River Road Focused Absolute Value Fund will seek long-term capital appreciation. The plan is to deploy that “proprietary Absolute Value® approach,” in hopes of providing “attractive, sustainable, low volatility returns over the long term.”  The fund will be managed by Andrew Beck, River Road’s CEO, and Thomas Forsha, their co-CIO. The initial expense ratio will be 1.26%. The minimum initial investment is $2,500, reduced to $500 for various sorts of tax-advantaged accounts..

Brown Advisory Equity Long/Short Fund

Brown Advisory Equity Long/Short Fund will seek to provide long-term capital appreciation by combining both “long” and “short” equity strategies. The plan is pretty straight forward: go long on securities with “few or no undesirable traits” and short the ugly ones. They have the option of using a wide variety of instruments (direct purchase, ETFs, futures and so on) to achieve that exposure. The fund will be managed by Paul Chew, Brown Advisory’s CIO and former manager of the Growth Equity fund. The initial expense ratio will be 2.24% for Investor shares and 2.49% for Advisor shares. The minimum initial investment is $5,000 for Investor shares and $2000 for Advisor shares, which are designed to be purchased through places like Scottrade. .

Dana Small Cap Equity Fund

Dana Small Cap Equity Fund will seek long-term growth. The plan is to create a risk-managed portfolio by using a sector-neutral, relative-value, equal-weight discipline. The large cap version of the strategy has been around for five years and has been perfectly respectable if not particularly distinguished for good or ill. The fund will be managed by a team from Dana Investment Advisers. The initial expense ratio will be 1.20%. The minimum initial investment is $1,000.

Driehaus Turnaround Opportunities Fund

Driehaus Turnaround Opportunities Fund will seek to maximize capital appreciation, while minimizing the risk of permanent capital impairment, over full-economic cycles.. The plan is to invest in the equity and debt securities of “distressed, stressed and leveraged companies,” on the popular premise that they’re widely misunderstood and their securities are often incorrectly priced. The fund will be managed by Elizabeth Cassidy and Thomas McCauley of Driehaus. The initial expense ratio has not been released. The minimum initial investment is $10,000 for retail accounts, reduced to $2000 for retirement accounts.

Ensemble Fund

Ensemble Fund will seek long term capital appreciation. The plan is to identify 15-25 high quality companies with undervalued stock, then buy some. The fund will be managed by Sean Stannard-Stockton, Ensemble’s president and CIO. The initial expense ratio will be 2.0%. The minimum initial investment is $5,000, reduced to $1000 for IRAs and accounts established with an automatic investment plan.

FFI Diversified US Equity Fund

FFI Diversified US Equity Fund will seek long-term capital growth. The plan is to invest in 40-50 U.S. stocks, with a target portfolio market cap of $20 billion. The fund will be managed by a team from FormulaFolio Investments, led by CIO James Wenk. The initial expense ratio will be a stout 2.25%. The prospectus doesn’t offer any immediate evidence that the guys will overcome a high expense ratio in such a competitive slice of the market. The minimum initial investment is $2,000, reduced to $1,000 for retirement accounts and those established with an automatic investing plan.

Gripman Absolute Value Balanced Fund

Gripman Absolute Value Balanced Fund will seek long-term total return and income. The plan is to pursue a conservative asset allocation on the order of 30% equity/70% intermediate-term fixed income. A sliver might be in junk bonds. The fund will be managed by Timothy W. Bond. The initial expense ratio hasn’t been announced. The minimum initial investment is $2,000.

Harbor Diversified International All Cap Fund

Harbor Diversified International All Cap Fund  will seek long-term growth of capital. The plan is to invest mostly in cyclical companies, which you typically buy when they look absolutely ghastly and sell as soon as they start looking decent. The fund will be managed by a very large team led by William J. Arah from Marathon Asset Management, a London-based adviser. Mr. Arah founded Marathon, which also serves as sub-advisor to Vanguard Global Equity. The initial expense ratio will be 1.22%. The minimum initial investment is $2,500.

Iron Equity Premium Income Fund

Iron Equity Premium Income Fund will seek to provide superior risk-adjusted total returns relative to the CBOE S&P 500 BuyWrite Index (BXM). The plan is to buy ETFs which track the S&P 500 while writing call options to generate income. The fund will be managed by a team from IRON Financial. The initial expense ratio will be 1.45%. The minimum initial investment is $10,000.

Preserver Alternative Opportunities Fund

Preserver Alternative Opportunities Fund will seek high total returns with low volatility. The plan is to hire sub-advisers to do pretty typical liquid alts stuff in the portfolio. The subs have not yet been named, though. The initial expense ratio will be 2.43%. The minimum initial investment is $2,000.

Quantified Self-Adjusting Trend Following Fund

Quantified Self-Adjusting Trend Following Fund (really? It feels like they consulted with Willy Wonka to select their name.)  will seek “high appreciation on an annual basis consistent with a high tolerance for risk.” Do you suppose it’s really seeking a high tolerance for risk, or merely requires that prospective investors have a high tolerance?  The plan is to determine the market’s trend, then invest in ETFs, leveraged ETFs or inverse ETFs. If there’s no discernible trend, they’ll invest in bonds. The fund will be managed by Jerry Wagner, President of the Flexible Plan Investments, and Dr. Z. George Yang, their director of research. The initial expense ratio will be 1.75%. The minimum initial investment is $10,000.

T. Rowe Price Mid-Cap Index Fund

T. Rowe Price Mid-Cap Index Fund will seek to match the performance of the Russell Select Midcap Completion Index, with a correlation of at least 0.95. The fund will be managed by Ken D. Uematsu. The initial expense ratio will be 0.32%.

T. Rowe Price Small-Cap Index Fund

T. Rowe Price Small-Cap Index Fund will seek to match the performance of the Russell 2000®Index with a correlation of at least 0.95. The fund will be managed by Ken D. Uematsu. The initial expense ratio will be 0.34%.

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About David Snowball

David Snowball, PhD (Massachusetts). Cofounder, lead writer. David is a Professor of Communication Studies at Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, a nationally-recognized college of the liberal arts and sciences, founded in 1860. For a quarter century, David competed in academic debate and coached college debate teams to over 1500 individual victories and 50 tournament championships. When he retired from that research-intensive endeavor, his interest turned to researching fund investing and fund communication strategies. He served as the closing moderator of Brill’s Mutual Funds Interactive (a Forbes “Best of the Web” site), was the Senior Fund Analyst at FundAlarm and author of over 120 fund profiles. David lives in Davenport, Iowa, and spends an amazing amount of time ferrying his son, Will, to baseball tryouts, baseball lessons, baseball practices, baseball games … and social gatherings with young ladies who seem unnervingly interested in him.