Products December 17, 2009

Hartford Equity Offering Gets New Name

The Hartford Mutual Funds renamed its Global Equity Fund as The Hartford Global Research Fund.

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The Hartford Global Research Fund, which is sub-advised by Wellington Management Company, LLP, seeks long-term capital appreciation by outperforming the MSCI All-Country World Index through investing primarily in equity securities of companies in a broad range of countries, industries, and market capitalizations worldwide.

“The Hartford Global Research Fund is a collection of stock ideas from Wellington Management’s global industry analysts and the fund’s new name emphasizes the analyst-driven, proprietary research approach,” said Keith Sloane, senior vice president of The Hartford Mutual Funds, in the announcement. “The fund may be a good choice for advisers looking to diversify abroad, while still investing domestically, and it gives investors access to Wellington Management’s superior research skills.”

The Hartford Global Research Fund has the flexibility to invest anywhere it sees opportunity across the globe regardless of country and market capitalization, the company said. In addition to being renamed, the fees and expenses for all share classes were reduced as of November 1, 2009. The fund continues to be managed by Mark Mandel and Cheryl Duckworth.

Deals & People December 17, 2009

Morgan Stanley Launches Emerging Manager Program

Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) has announced the launch of the Morgan Stanley Emerging Manager Program (EM Program).

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The EM Program seeks to identify and provide capital, as well as strategic advice and infrastructure solutions, to emerging asset managers (emerging managers), with a specific emphasis on minority and women-owned asset managers, the announcement said. The program will be headed by Morgan Stanley veteran Carla A. Harris.

The new EM Program, according to the announcement, will partner with long-only (equity and fixed income) and alternative minority and women-owned asset managers to:

  • increase the number of emerging managers of scale and heighten the emerging manager opportunity for growth and success; and
  • introduce plan sponsors and other institutional investors to a larger, more diversified pool of Emerging Managers and the means to participate in the success of emerging talent.

The EM Program will be a part of Alternative Investment Partners (AIP), a division of MSIM that manages portfolios of private equity, hedge fund, and real estate investments on behalf of institutional and high-net-worth clients. The manager participants in the EM Program will be overseen by an Investment Committee comprising representatives and senior management from across Morgan Stanley and MSIM.

“We believe that emerging managers will present attractive opportunities over the next few years, particularly as public and corporate pension plans seek to diversify their asset management providers and employees look for diverse asset managers among the choices on their employer defined contribution platforms. This program will increase the opportunity for plan sponsors and other institutional investors to get exposure to a larger pool of untapped talent and to place assets with a diverse group of managers,” said Harris in the announcement.

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