Wells Fargo & Co.'s Evergreen Investment Management Co. LLC confirmed Friday that it plans to recommend that Wells Fargo Capital Management take over as adviser for two lagging fixed-income mutual funds now managed by Tattersall Advisory Group.
Laura Fay, a spokeswoman for Evergreen, said that "in light of recent performance challenges and the broadened investment capabilities because of the ongoing integration," it will recommend that Wells Fargo Capital Management take over the day-to-day management of the Evergreen Core Bond Fund and the Evergreen Core Plus Bond Fund. The boards of the funds must approve the change.
Class A shares of the Evergreen Core Bond Fund fell 21.5% in the year that ended May 14, while the average intermediate-term bond fund shed about 1.4%, according to Morningstar Inc. Class A shares of the Evergreen Core Plus Bond Fund, another intermediate-term bond fund, fell 20.5% over the same period.
Tattersall was acquired by Wachovia Corp. (now part of Wells Fargo) in 1999 and serves as Evergreen's U.S. taxable fixed-income manager. As of March 31, Tattersall had about $72.6 million of assets under management.
According to its Web site, Tattersall relies on "a conservative investment approach to building fixed-income portfolios," and seeks to provide returns "consistently above the market benchmark through active portfolio management, while minimizing credit risk, structural risk and total volatility."
Evergreen managed more than $175 billion as of Dec. 31.
Wells Fargo and Tattersall did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
