Mystery Manager Who's minding your money?

In this day of disclosure, why is it sometimes difficult to get the scoop on who's man-aging your fund? Simply put: because of the myriad management options employed by fund families.

When deciding who will manage one of their portfolios, fund families choose from a number of scenarios. According to Don Cassidy, senior research analyst at Lipper, these include using an advisor, typically within the fund family, to manage the fund; employing co-advisors, where two or more companies are paid to man-age different parts of the fund; using subadvisors, where the advisor pays a subcontractor to manage the fund; and using multiple subadvisors, where portfolio managers of various funds within a larger fund each manage their own assets.

But getting to the bottom of things is now a bit easier. "While roughly two-thirds of [U.S. diversified equity] portfolios are managed by more than one person, starting last February, they can no longer say 'team managed.' They have to name the people manag-ing the fund," says Cassidy.