A fund family disappeared last month when McCullough, Andrews and Cappiello cashed out four funds three weeks ago. The funds bear the name of high-profile principal Frank Cappiello, a regular panelist on Wall $treet Week and a CBS Marketwatch columnist; the funds will be liquefied in the first week of April.

The San Francisco-based asset manager decided to exit the mutual fund business to concentrate on institutional money management where they control over $100 million in assets.

"Mutual funds are a losing game," explained Cappiello. "There's too much competition and the market's too thin."

The funds managed approximately $200 million five years ago, although assets stood at almost 26 million at the end of January according to numbers from the FRC. Cappiello attributed the outflow to failures in marketing and distribution. "We were enticed in the 90s by an important client," he trailed off, before continuing, "Brokers are more important than people realize."

Merging or selling the funds were illogical options given the amount in assets and the legal and regulatory costs.

The liquidated no-load funds consisted of a growth fund (M$-EEGD), a gold fund, an emerging growth fund (M$-EEGB), and an utility income fund (M$-EEGC).

The staff will not be affected by the exit, according to Owen O'Donnell, chief operating officer. "We're not hiring or firing," he said. 

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