Bancorp Hawaii is getting into the retail mutual fund business.
The Honolulu company, which has managed a line of mutual funds for trust clients since 1984, announced that it is launching a proprietary fund family, the Pacific Capital Funds.
The funds, seeded with $100 million in converted trust assets, will be available to consumers through Bancorp Investment Group, a subsidiary.
The offerings include a growth stock fund, a short-to-intermediate treasury securities fund, and a U.S. treasury securities fund.
"We're in the process of doing what a lot of banks have done, which is converting pooled trusts into mutual funds." said Thomas J. Macdonald, president of Hawaiian Trust Company, the subsidiary of the bank that serves as investment adviser to the funds.
The trust company's existing lineup of mutual funds, the Hawaiian Funds, has $1.1 billion in assets and is offered exclusively to wealthy and institutional clients. The flagship fund is the Hawaiian Tax-Free Trust Fund, which had $660 million of assets as of Oct. 31, according to CDA/Wiesenberger, Rockville, Md.
Winsbury Co., a Columbus, Ohio, firm that specializes in helping banks launch proprietary mutual funds, has been named as distributor of the Pacific Capital Funds. Aquila Management Corp., New York, will continue as distributor of the Hawaiian Funds.
Mr. Macdonald said the decision to continue with two separate distributors, while unusual, made sense because each has different strengths. Aquila caters to managers of institutional funds, while Winsbury Co. has a reputation for helping banks crack the retail sales market, he said.
Walter Laskey, executive vice president of Bank of Hawaii's investment and trust group, is overseeing the new mutual funds. He recently joined the bank from Merrill Lunch, where he was a vice president.
William Barton, Hawaiian Trust's senior investment manager, is in charge of funds management. Michael Chun, president of Bancorp Investment Group, is leading the team of investment consultants who will sell the funds.
Norwest Adding Funds
Separately, Norwest Corp. is adding several new portfolios to its fast-growing mutual fund family.
The Minneapolis-based banking company will add a total return bond fund and a contrarian stock fund on Jan. 1, according to Fund Decoder, a mutual fund industry newsletter. A small-company stock fund is also on the drawing board.
As reported, Norwest is in the process of restructuring $3 billion in commingled trust assets as mutual funds. That conversion, slated to be completed in the first quarter of 1994, will bring Norwest's total mutual fund assets under management to $7 billion.
Forum Financial Services, New York, is distributor to the Norwest Funds.
