Turner Investment Partners has hired a marketing veteran who plans to target banks as distribution channels for the company's mutual funds.
Peter Moran, 36, who joined Berwyn, Pa.-based Turner last month from J.P. Morgan Investment Management, has his sights on three banks in particular-NationsBank, First Union, and KeyCorp. He also cited Wells Fargo, BankAmerica, Barnett, SunTrust, and Bank of New York as possibilities.
Turner's traditional business has been providing equity and fixed-income management services for corporate retirement funds, labor unions, foundations, endowments, and high-net-worth individuals.
In Mr. Moran, Turner gets a marketing executive with experience at J.P. Morgan, New York; Pilgrim Baxter & Associates, Wayne, Pa.; Montgomery Asset Management, San Francisco; and Pimco Advisors LP, Stamford, Conn.
"I think Peter's done a good job, and he's worked in a variety of marketing jobs," said Geoffrey H. Bobroff, a consultant in East Greenwich, R.I.
After a year at J.P. Morgan, Mr. Moran left-in part to run his own department, but also to work closer to his home, in Phoenixville, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia.
By getting the funds into bank channels, Mr. Moran hopes to expand the company beyond its base of investing institutional money to reach a broader retail market. Turner already offers a growth and equity fund and a small- cap fund through Charles Schwab & Co. and Fidelity Investments.
"It's an important part of the strategy" to be in banks, particularly trust departments, said Mr. Moran. "If anything, people have underestimated banks ... The industry is consolidating, but the banks are getting stronger, not smaller."
But he faces more competition as third-party fund providers seek to get their products on bank broker-dealer lists, Mr. Bobroff said.
"Proprietary funds of banks are gaining recognition, so third-party funds are getting less notice," said Mr. Bobroff. "Banks are still better than going a broker route," where competition can be even greater.
Still, Mr. Moran is committed to getting a broader market and, in turn, getting into bank-owned brokerages.
"In today's paradigm, you have to have an intermediary" to handle direct sales of the funds, he said.
Mr. Moran also plans to boost the Turner's presence in unbundled 401(k) plans.
He cites four people-two of whom he's worked for-in helping shape his marketing style: Mark B. Whitson, director of institutional services at Janus Capital Corp.; Peter Subman, Neuberger & Berman Management; John T. Story, managing director of funds at Montgomery Asset Management, and Dick Davis, Mr. Moran's former boss at J.P. Morgan.
Mr. Davis, particularly, has "a lot of vision," Mr. Moran said. "He's got an open mind. You got to have an open mind in this business or you're dead."
As for his new job, "the first thing you have to do is build a strategy," Mr. Moran said. Initially he may hire two or more marketing people, he said.
In addition to strong distribution, Mr. Moran believes in service. At J.P. Morgan, where he was a vice president of marketing, he instituted twice-daily faxes and a Web site to update clients on things like the markets and the economy.
"Some Web pages look like they're borrowed from Morningstar. The one we started at J.P. Morgan was loaded with research," he said.
"The question you have to ask is, 'How do you retain the end-user?' "
