Investment Products and Services Launches

PGIM Investments announced today that it will be renaming its domestic fund platform to PGIM Funds.

Effective on June 11, retail domestic fund names will no longer include “Prudential” and will be branded “PGIM.” Renaming the funds more closely aligns them to the firm, which was renamed PGIM Investments in April 2017. PGIM Investments is the global retail manufacturer and distributor of PGIM Inc., the global investment management businesses of Prudential Financial, Inc.

This name change will not affect the management, symbols or CUSIPS of the funds on the platform. Additionally, the renaming will not affect the Prudential Day One Mutual Funds, the firm’s target-date fund (TDF) series.

Renaming the retail domestic funds allows PGIM Investments to provide its entire global product suite under one, unified name, as the firm’s international UCITS platform already carries the PGIM name. 

“With this change, we are taking the next steps to implement the rebranding that began almost a year ago to provide a better brand experience for advisers and clients,” says Stuart Parker, PGIM Investments CEO and president. “The renaming reinforces our relationship with PGIM’s deep investment expertise and multi-manager model, and our commitment to delivering actively managed investment solutions.”

Alger Expands Focused Portfolios Suite

Fred Alger Management, Inc. (Alger) has announced a further expansion of its suite of focused portfolios with the launch of the Alger 25 Fund. The fund is a focused portfolio of approximately 25 high-conviction stocks managed by Ankur Crawford, senior vice president and portfolio manager.

In addition to the focused nature of the portfolio, the fund employs a performance-based management fee, serving as an added differentiator. The management fee is a “fulcrum fee,” whereby the fee charged to shareholders fluctuates based upon the returns of the fund relative to its benchmark, the S&P 500 Index. Investors pay a total management fee of 0.30% should the fund’s return equal or fall below the benchmark’s return over a 12-month period ending October 31. The fee could be 0.80% should the fund outperform its benchmark by 500 basis points (bps) over the same 12-month period.

“The holdings in the Alger 25 Fund will be those companies that can take advantage of powerful secular trends in the economy, thus realizing durable growth potential,” says Crawford. “We believe these companies, which are also generally dominant in their industries and have pricing power over their competitors, will continue to maintain their market-leading positions for many years. This focused, best ideas portfolio can help drive long-term performance for our clients.”

“Focused portfolios are a core competency of Alger,” says Jim Tambone, executive vice president and chief distribution officer. “These funds enable the portfolio managers to take advantage of Alger’s in-depth, proprietary research process and the insights of our 50 person investment team. We believe the Alger 25 Fund will benefit in a similar fashion, especially when combined with the performance-based fee we have implemented.”