Russell Investment Group yesterday announced the appointment of Schneider Capital Management Corp. as a new manager in the Russell U.S. Equity Fund.

Schneider will manage approximately 7% of the fund as a mid/large cap specialist. Schneider replaces Brandywine Asset Management, LLC as a manager of the fund.

Russell says the fund is also one of the underlying equity funds in LifePoints Portfolios, Russell’s fast-growing multi-manager, fund-of-funds offering.

According to Russell, Schneider is an opportunistic, aggressive value manager.

“A classic problem faced by Value managers is the risk of buying something too early, and thereby waiting for an excessive amount of time until the market sees potential. We believe that Schneider’s research capabilities, industry knowledge, and focus on catalysts at the stock level all help the firm avoid opportunity costs better than most Value managers,” said Tim Hicks, chief investment officer of Russell Canada, in a release.

The Russell U.S. Equity Fund has approximately $593 million in total assets (as of November 26) and it is directly available to institutional investors and also to individual investors through the LifePoints Portfolios program.

LifePoints is available to Canadian individual investors through RBC Investments, Richardson Partners Financial, ScotiaMcLeod, and TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.