The family of no-load, socially-screened funds run by Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based Citizens Funds has adopted a new member. The addition is the $14 million Meyers Pride Value Fund, a value fund that has used a screen to find investments in companies with progressive policies towards gays and lesbians.

Pending approval of shareholders, Citizens will acquire the assets of the fund from current sponsor and advisor Meyers Capital. The Beverley Hills, California-based firm will act as subadvisor and Shelly Meyers will remain as portfolio manager to the fund. The fund will be renamed to Citizens Value Fund and its social-screen will be broadened to match that of Citizen's other funds, Val Dingle, vice president of marketing told the MutualFundWire.com.

The deal is scheduled to close in September and the two firms will co-market the fund. More specific details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Dingle explained that the value fund is a good fit into the firm's current lineup. "The current fund family has five growth funds, a money market fund and an income fund. This rounds out the family nicely and the fund is already a socially responsible fund," she explained.

For Meyers the deal enables her to broaden distribution and day-to-day operational support of the fund while freeing her to concentrate on security selection. "This is a complimentary fit," explained Dingle, "It allows us to round out our offerings and for Shelly it will broaden distribution of the fund. The two firms fit hand and glove."

Citizen's Dingle is coy about the fund firm's future moves. Whether the firm continues to expand its product lineup will largely depend on market opportunity and what clients and customers are asking for. "We want to make sure we the have appropriate fund no matter what the market is doing," she said.

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