(January 24 – 10:00 ET) – Frank Russell Co. has appointed three additional management firms to handle specific U.S. equity mandates within the Russell U.S. Equity Fund, an institutional equity fund for Canadian investors. The fund also serves as one of several underlying sub-funds to the LifePoints Portfolios for individual investors.

Russell is adding Westpeak Investment Advisors L.P., Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. and MFS Institutional Advisors to fund’s lineup of managers.

These new assignments were completed as part of Russell’s multiple-manager and multiple-style process, which seeks to emphasize stock selection skills while providing broad-market diversification.

“The addition of these highly regarded managers to the Russell U.S. Equity Fund brings our investors top U.S. equity stock selection talent,” said Tim Hicks, portfolio manager.

“We believe firmly that these managers have strong stock-picking skills that will benefit our investors, while further diversifying our portfolio in a very volatile environment,” Hicks added.

In an effort to improve risk control and preserve return potential, Russell said 27% of the fund will be positioned with the two market-oriented managers, Jacobs Levy and Westpeak, while a second value-oriented manager, MFS, joins the lineup.

These actions increase the diversification of the fund from its current structure of one value manager and two growth managers to a six-manager structure with two managers in each of the three large-cap styles — value, growth and market-oriented.

N.J.-based Jacobs Levy’s performance will be measured against the Russell 1000 Index, while the Russell 1000 Value index will be used to measure the performance of Boston-based MFS. A custom-built, defensive passive benchmark will be used to measure the performance of Boulder, Colorado-based Westpeak.
-IE Staff