A press release entitled, "Wells Fargo Funds Management and Evergreen Investments Announce Mutual Fund Product Offering Changes," says, "Wells Fargo Funds Management, LLC, the advisor to the Wells Fargo Advantage Funds, and its affiliate Evergreen Investment Management Company, LLC, the advisor to the Evergreen Funds, have announced plans to streamline and strengthen their mutual fund product offerings. The plans include a series of fund mergers, reorganizations, and liquidations which, following approval by fund shareholders, will result in a Wells Fargo Advantage Funds family offering 128 mutual funds ... representing what we believe to be the best investment management talent from both firms."
Karla Rabusch, president of Wells Fargo Advantage Funds, says, "Uniting these two mutual fund families gives us a tremendous opportunity to better serve our clients by offering a powerful array of products that takes advantage of the strengths of both organizations. We are thrilled with the quality, breadth and depth of the investment options that will be available to investors." Wells release explains, "The proposals are designed to both eliminate product overlap and reduce costs to shareholders, while making the resulting product lineup compelling, comprehensive, and easy to navigate.
Rabusch writes in a piece entitled, "The Integration of Our Fund Families Has Begun," under "What to expect in the coming months," "Proxies for the reorganization of our fund families are expected to be mailed to shareholders during the early part of the second quarter of 2010, with shareholder meetings held in early summer. Upon shareholder approval, the reorganizations (and other related changes) will likely be completed in mid-summer."
Spokeswoman Laura Fay tells us that the fund lineup will be reduced to 128 from 177 over the next six months. Crane Data shows the combined Wells Fargo and Evergreen money fund complex as the 9th largest with $160.5 billion (including $25.8 billion in Evergreen Funds). The document, "Our Proposed Fund Lineup," maps out the merger strategy and shows that most of Evergreen Money Market Funds will merge into existing Wells Fargo Advantage Funds in the coming months.
The $4.4 billion Evergreen Prime Cash Management and $7.6 billion Evergreen Instiutional Money Market will merge into the $31.5 Wells Fargo Advantage Heritage MM; the $3.2 billion Evergreen Money Market will merge into the $1.6 billion Overland Express Sweep Money Market; the $1.1 billion Evergreen US Govt MM and the $2.4 billion Evergreen Inst US Govt will merge into the $29.5 billion Wells Fargo Govt MM; the $896 million Evergreen Treasury MM and $5.5 billion Evergreen Inst Treasury MM will merge into the $8.4 billion Wells Treasury Plus MM; and the Evergreen Inst 100% Treasury MM will merge into the $8.5 billion Wells 100% Treasury MM. The taxable funds will all be managed by Wells' David Sylvester.
On the Tax Exempt side, the $438 million Evergreen California Municipal Money Market will merge into the $2.6 billion Wells CA Muni MM; the $6.8 billion Evergreen Municipal Money Market will remain and be renamed Municipal Cash Management Money Market; the $442 million Wells Fargo Advantage Municipal MM will be merged into the $3.9 billion Evergreen Muni MM (and renamed Wells Fargo Advantage); and Evergreen's NJ, NY and PA Municipal funds will remain, but will take on the Wells Fargo Advantage moniker. The municipal money funds will all be managed by Matt Kiselak.
