Paul Abdenour and Marc Dent are focusing Quaker Funds' [profile] distribution strategy and re-positioning the firm as a fund shop-series trust hybrid.

Marc Dent Quaker Funds Managing Director of Strategic Initiatives

“If you look across the industry, we’ve identified the need for small fund families to gain broader distribution ability,” Abdenour, who joined as president of Quaker Funds in October of 2016, tells MFWire.

According to Abdenour, Quaker Funds has the selling agreements and the distribution expertise to bring this service to the market.

Quaker is a $170 million fund shop founded in 1990 by Jeffry King, who still serves as CEO. At the end of 2006, its AUM was around $1.2 billion. Last year, FinGeniX, a firm co-founded by Abdenour and Dent, purchased a minority stake in Quaker. Dent has served as Quaker's managing director of strategic initiatives since July of last year.

The two see an opportunity for Quaker to develop a distribution approach centered around well-thought out asset allocation portfolios. Then, they want to lead a distribution charge in an area that they know well—the TAMPs.

Long term, outside funds that are eventually included in Quaker's series trust will have the opportunity to be included in these portfolios. In turn, Quaker will be able to offer the portfolios without an overlay fee, since all of the funds will be part of the series trust.

Though Quaker's evolution into a series trust provider is just beginning, Abdenour is confident that the firm's hands-on approach will differentiate it from larger competitors.

"Some firms out there have an adoptive model that's similar, but we're actually going to help [fund firms] sell things," explains Abdenour.

The firm recently launched the search for fund families to include in its series trust, and is still learning the nuances of the business. They started by screening for fund families with assets under $250 million, which yielded over 370 results.

Now, they're in the due diligence phase. Abdenour says there's no way to gauge what the timeline will be, but the team is looking for small fund shops that have a good culture, complementary strategies, and managers with a unique story. 

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