One of the fastest growing fund firms in the country wants to double the size of its distribution team in 2017.

Ruxandra Risko LoCorr Funds SVP, National Accounts

LoCorr Funds, which was ranked fifth-fastest growing fund manager by Strategic Insight in September 2016, currently has a team of 15 external wholesalers and 9 internal wholesalers. Ruxandra Risko, senior vice president of national accounts, wants to increase that to 30 external wholesalers and around 15 internal wholesalers over the course of the year.

“Our goal is throughout this year to find quality professionals who have a passion for our business and can contribute significantly,” Risko tells MFWire.

Risko plans to use the additional staff to better serve the platforms and advisors that LoCorr currently partners with, and to support future distribution expansions. Especially in the alts space, advisor education and one-on-one relationships are critical, she explains, and that’s the support that the new hires will provide.

The team has already hired three external wholesalers and one internal wholesaler, who will start in the coming weeks.

LoCorr Funds, a Minneapolis-based asset manager that provides low-correlating investment strategies, has more than doubled its AUM in less than two years. When MFWire spoke with CEO Kevin Kinzie in March 2015, the firm had a suite of five funds and had just hit $1 billion in AUM. Since then, the team has added a fund, and Risko says the firm is closing in on $2.5 billion managed assets.

From 2014 to 2015, LoCorr experienced a 100 percent increase in sales, and a 50 percent increase between 2015 and 2016. Risko credits this growth to new platform partnerships, product expansion, and appetite from both advisors and platforms for the LoCorr investment strategy.

In December 2016, Kinzie and his team announced a new selling agreement with Wells Fargo, marking the firm’s third wirehouse partnership. The firm also distributes through UBS and Morgan Stanley. 

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