More than $700 million of inflows that flowed into Bill Gross's new fund in the first two months came from a single wirehouse branch in Southern California. And you shouldn't be surprised which one.

Kirsten Grind and Gregory Zuckerman of the Wall Street Journal report that the Morgan Stanley branch in La Jolla, California (outside San Diego), the branch where one of Gross' personal financial advisors works, accounted for more than 60 percent of the $1.1 billion that flowed into his Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund [profile] in October and November after Gross jumped to Janus at the end of September.

So why is this of interest? Business Insider has an idea, and their headline doesn't hide it: "Bill Gross Used A Clever Trick To Get Bigger Investors To Buy Into His New Bond Fund". But wait, aren't we all usually telling investors that they should look for funds where the PMs eat their cooking? And now Gross is being called out for (possibly) being a big investor from the get-go in his new fund ...

Spokespeople for Janus and Morgan Stanley declined to comment to the WSJ. The paper notes that their data, which comes from unnamed sources who saw data from BNY Mellon's Albridge, does not make it clear "whether the money originated from one investor," say Gross the billionaire, "or one financial adviser," say an advisor to Gross the billionaire, "or from more than one." 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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