Church Capital Management, a Yardley, Pennsylvania investment advisory firm, is breaking into the mutual funds business by offering two new mutual funds.

Despite its name, the asset manager is purely secular in nature and was founded by Gregory Church in 1987. Today it manages nearly $2 billion of assets for individuals, sharing plans, charitable organizations and other institutional investors. Until now, though, it has stayed out of the mutual fund business.

The first two funds will include a value offering Church Capital Value Trust (CVLAX) and the Church Capital Money Market Fund (CHUXX), a prime taxable money market fund.

"As far as the Value Trust, it’s an avenue for our smaller managed accounts to be invested in a vehicle that will give them the performance and investment style of our larger separately managed accounts. The Money Market Fund was created as an investment vehicle for the sweep accounts that are with some of our institutional clients," said Christy Oeth a vice president at Church Asset.

Oeth said the firm recently decided to add mutual funds to benefit its smaller accounts, which typically are difficult to diversify because of their size.

"In utilizing a mutual fund format, we can provide better diversification for those smaller accounts," Oeth added. "If you buy $50,000 with mutual funds, you can own interest in 30 different companies."

"The Money Market Fund is a vehicle for investing for the excess cash balances of customers or our affiliated trust company, Sterling Trust Company," she added. Sterling is an affiliate of Church Asset.

Bainbridge Securties Inc., another affiliate of the firm, will act as the distributor of the funds.

Gregory Church, 20-year veteran of the investment and financial services industry, will serve as the chief investment strategist for the Value Trust, and John Barry, the managing director of investment services, will be the fund manager for the Money Market Fund.

Oeth said the firm is still putting selling agreements with brokerage firms in place that will act as a “custodian for our customer assets.”

The minimum initial investment in the Value Trust is $1,000, except an IRA or gift to minors, for which the minimum initial investment is $500. The fund’s shares can be purchased through broker-dealers or banks, or directly from Bainbridge Securities Inc.

The adviser class is a no-load fund, and the retail class is a load fund. 

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