SEI [see profile] just dropped a sub-advisor from three of its mutual funds while adding a different sub-advisor to a fourth.

On Friday the Oaks, Pennsylvania-based firm filed to remove San Francisco-based Wells Capital Management as a sub-advisor to its Small/Mid Cap Equity, Mid-Cap and Tax-Managed Small Cap funds, while also adding Charlotte, North Carolina-based West End Advisors as a sub-advisor to the Tax-Managed Large-Cap Fund [see filings here and here].

An SEI spokesperson was not immediately able to comment on the moves. A spokeswoman for Wells (part of the banking giant Wells Fargo) declined to comment for this story. The filings offered no specific motivation for the moves.

Pharr, who joined the $1.8-billion, three-star Tax-Managed Large-Cap Fund as a PM, confirmed that this is not West End's first sub-advisory deal with SEI.

"We have a sleeve in a number of different funds that SEI has," Pharr told The MFWire.

According to Pharr, West End worked with about $2.4 billion at the end of the first quarter, about 55 percent in institutional assets and 45 percent in broker-dealer wrap programs. And Pharr and Mike Goldman, another partner, insist that West End is on the prowl for more mutual fund sub-advisory work.

"We think that we're a good fit," Pharr said, describing West's "different approach" to U.S. domestic large-cap management. "We start with a macroeconomic view that leads us to sectors and individual stocks within those sectors."

That, Goldman explained, leads to returns that have a low correlation "to other managers [large cap and otherwise] and the broad market as a whole, which is very unique for a large-to-mega-cap manager."

The Tax-Managed Small Cap Fund holds $343.8 million and has three stars from Morningstar. And the Mid-Cap Fund has $161.1 million and three stars. 

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