Quantcast
The MFWire
Manage Email Alerts | Sponsorships | About MFWire | Who We Are

Subscribe to MFWire.com's News Alerts [click]

Rating:American Funds Steals Crown from Fido Not Rated 5.0 Email Routing List Email & Route  Print Print
Wednesday, April 14, 2004

American Funds Steals Crown from Fido

by: Theresa Sim

There is once again a new fund on the top of the heap displacing Fidelity Magellan. In fact, there are three. A trio of American Funds offerings recently displaced the Fidelity fund as the nation's largest mutual fund.

In the past four years Magellan has been overtaken in size by a pair of funds, including Pimco's Total Return fund and Vanguard's Index 500 fund, only to retake the title soon thereafter.

This time the trio surpassing it include: American Funds Growth Fund of America with $74.96 billion in assets, The Investment Company of America with $68.93 billion and Washington Mutual Investors Fund with $66.92 billion. Fidelity’s Magellan is close behind at $66.87 billion in assets as of the end of March.

American’s broker-distributed funds are known for their low cost and consistent returns. The growth may also have been boosted by the firm's successful run in the retirement market with its R-share class. Overall, the share class has attracted $11.4 billion, with American Funds capturing $7.6 billion, estimated a retirement analyst in an August 2003 Forbes article.

Altogether, the 29-fund family’s investments exceed $450 billion.

American Funds’ parent company, Capital Research and Management, serves as investment advisor to the funds.

In many ways, American Funds strategy differs markedly from that of Fidelity. The Los Angeles- based fund complex sells exclusively through brokers and shuns advertising and retail marketing. Indeed, relatively few retail investors have heard of the company.

Capital Research also avoids the creation of "star manager" by focusing on team portfolio management. The fund portfolios are parceled out to fund managers who invest the assets according to the specific fund’s objectives, billed a "multiple portfolio counselor" system.

R. Michael Shanahan, chairman of the board of Capital Research, and James F. Rothenberg, president and director, are among the counselors managing both the Growth Fund of America and The Investment Company of America Fund; Timothy D. Armour, executive vice president and director and James K. Dunton, executive vice president and director, are among the managers of the Washington Mutual Investors Fund.

The firm had no problem gaining distribution in 2003 - AIG SunAmerica added the funds in July 2003, and Nationwide Life and Hartford Financial in April 2003.

In keeping with the firm's "quiet" reputation, a spokeswoman at American Funds declined to comment about the firm’s inflows. 

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE

5.0
 Do You Recommend This Story?



GO TO: MFWire
Return to Top
 News Archives
2024: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2023: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2022: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2021: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2020: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2019: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2018: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2017: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2016: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2015: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2014: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2013: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2012: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2011: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2010: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2009: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2008: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2007: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2006: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2005: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2004: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2003: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2002: Q4Q3Q2Q1
 Subscribe via RSS:
Raw XML
Add to My Yahoo!
follow us in feedly




©All rights reserved to InvestmentWires, Inc. 1997-2024
14 Wall Street | 20th Floor | New York, NY 10005 | P: 212-331-8968 | F: 212-331-8998
Privacy Policy :: Terms of Use