Dick Weiss, portfolio manager of a portion of the iMGP Equity Fund since the fund’s 1996 inception, has announced that he is retiring effective October 15, 2020. We are tremendously grateful for the commitment that Dick brought to managing his portion of the fund as he completely embraced the concept of focusing on his highest confidence stocks. We have the highest appreciation and admiration for his years of portfolio management, and we wish him all the best in his retirement.
Effective October 15, 2020, we will be removing Weiss/Wells Capital Management as a sub-advisor on the Equity Fund. (Weiss/Wells Capital Management will also be removed from the iMGP Smaller Companies Fund.) We are confident in the fund’s remaining line-up of managers and we will be allocating his assets to two of the fund’s sub-advisors—Sands Capital Management and Nuance Investments. Sands has been on the fund since April 2008 and has outperformed its Russell 1000 Growth benchmark over that time. Nuance has been a sub-advisor since February 2014 and has also beaten its benchmark, the Russell 3000 Value index since inception. We will be increasing Nuance’s allocation from 10% to 15% to be in line with other managers, and we are increasing Sands’ allocation to 25% to maintain the fund’s goal of serving as a core equity holding, as they are the sole growth manager on the fund. We believe the fund remains well-diversified and balanced in terms of the number of holdings and investment style and we have no plans to replace Weiss on the fund.
As always, we continue to work hard to ensure that the fund reflects Litman Gregory’s ongoing commitment to providing investment strategies that are relevant, competitive, and reflect our best thinking.