Both Western Asset and BlackRock recently informed money fund shareholders that they would be discontinuing the use of the CitiFunds and Merrill Lynch monikers, respectively, on a portion of their money market mutual fund lineups. Legg Mason subsidiary Western has managed the CitiFunds, which will be renamed the Western Asset/Citi Funds, since the 2005 swap of their brokerage for the asset management businesses of Citi, while BlackRock has managed the Merrill Lynch funds since their 2006 deal. On Monday, May 4, BlackRock's Merrill Lynch and Merrill Lynch Institutional money funds will drop the Merrill from their name; the ML Institutional funds are being renamed "FFI" (which stands for "Funds for Institutions"). Western's "Citi" de-branding will begin on June 1.
Western said to clients in a letter, "We are notifying you that we are changing the name of all the CitiFunds Money Market Funds. This change reflects that Western Asset, a subsidiary of Legg Mason, is -- and has been --the investment manager for these funds since December of 2005. You may recall that Citigroup Asset Management was acquired by Legg Mason in December of 2005, with Western Asset assuming the control and management of the money market business. At that time, Citigroup agreed to license the 'Citi' brand for our money market funds until the agreements expiration on May 31, 2009. Accordingly, on June 1, 2009, the CitiFunds Money Market Funds will be re-named 'Western Asset/Citi' for the next twelve months, until they are finally re-named 'Western Asset' on June 1, 2010."
It adds, "Please be assured that this is solely a name change. The dedicated investment and client service professionals you've worked with over the years remain the same. Additionally, all the account identifies -- cusips, tickers and fund numbers are also unchanged." U.S.-domiciled and Cayman-domiciled funds are affected, but no word on whether Dublin funds will also be included in the change. The changes include the funds: Citi Institutional Liquid Reserves, Citi Institutional Cash Reserves, Citi Inst Tax Free Reserves, Citi Inst U.S. Treasury Reserves, Citi Premium Liquid Reserves, Citi Premium U.S. Treasury Reserves, Citi Cash Res, Citi California Tax Free Reserves, Citi Connecticut Tax Free Reserves, Citi New York Tax Free Reserves, Citi Tax Free Reserves, and Citi U.S. Treasury Reserves, plus the Cayman-domiciled Citi Premium Liquid Reserves, Ltd, Citi Institutional Cash Reserves, Ltd, and Citi Institutional Liquid Reserves, Ltd.
BlackRock also wrote recently, "Effective May 4, 2009, the names of the money market funds listed below will be changed. Please note that each Fund will continue to be managed in the same conservative fashion, with no change in investment objective." The funds changing include: Merrill Lynch Treasury Fund, Merrill Lynch Government Fund, Merrill Lynch Institutional Fund, Merrill Lynch Institutional Tax-Exempt Fund, and Merrill Lynch Premier Institutional Fund will have new CUSIPs and will replace Merrill Lynch with FFI in front of the new name. Merrill Lynch Retirement Reserves Money Fund, Merrill Lynch Ready Assets Trust, Merrill Lynch US Treasury Money Fund, ML Ready Assets US Treasury Money Fund, and Merrill Lynch USA Government Reserves will all remove the Merrill Lynch from the official fund names.
