Scout Investments [see profile] just said goodbye to both its fixed income team and its money market business. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's David Nicklaus reports that on April 1 the Kansas City, Missouri-based UMB Financial subsidiary shut down Bruce Fernandez's four-person, St. Louis-based fixed income team and that on March 1 it liquidated its three money market mutual funds.

In a statement on Scout's website, the mutual fund firm claimed "that it is no longer economically viable to continue operating the [money market] funds in view of their size and future prospects for growth." Thanks to sustained low interest rates over the past several years, numerous fund firms have left the money market business lately.

As for the fixed income team, Scout isn't leaving the business. A UMB spokeswoman told the Post-Dispatch that Columbus, Indiana-based Reams Asset Management, an institutional fixed-income manager Scout bought last year (see The MFWire, 9/2/2010), took over management of the Scout Bond Fund on December 1. In January Scout unveiled a deal to buy two Frontegra funds (Frontegra Columbus Core Plus Fund and Frontegra Columbus Core Fund) already sub-advised by Reams, and now Scout will merge one of those funds with its bond fund to create the Scout Core Bond Fund. (The MFWire previously reported on the pending merger: see The MFWire, 1/25/2011.)

Meanwhile, Fernandez confided to the paper that he's leaving asset management to start an investment consulting firm, Investing By Numbers.

"We'll be helping institutional investors, boards of directors and charities with the process they should follow," Fernandez reportedly said. "I'll be kind of like a fishing guide for investing." 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE