Look out, PMs. It looks like your job is a little less secure than it was a year ago.

There has been a shakeup in PMs this year, U.S. News and World Report's Rob Silverblatt writes, with 665 funds having swapped out at least one PM in 2013 so far, according to Morningstar data prepared for the publication.

"Funds have been shaking up their management teams at an alarming clip," he writes.

Silverblatt writes that if the trend continues at this pace, that number could swell to more than 1,000 by the close of the year. In comparison, only 783 funds experienced such a change in 2012. In 2011, that number was 747, and in 2010, it was 626, he writes.

Morningstar looked for scenarios where one manager left and another joined soon after. Silverblatt says the data does not explain if the person who joined came to the specific post left by the PM, or what the conditions for leaving necessarily were.

Silverblatt reports that a large number of high-profile funds have been among those shaking things up. S&P Capital IQ data shows that 40 U.S. stock funds with more than $500 million AUM have had management changes.

Silverblatt spoke to S&P Capital IQ's director of research, Todd Rosenbluth, who pointed to Lord Abbett & Co. [profile] as an example of a fund that is making changes after mediocre performance, bringing on PMs Walter Prahl and Rick Ruvkun. Silverblatt writes that Rosenbluth is concerned the managers have limited experiencing running Lord Abbett's specific kind of strategy.

Silverblatt quotes Rosenbluth as saying, "It's hard to view that change and … say things are going to get better. But only time well tell."  

Edited by: Casey Quinlan


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