Like betting on a star PM, tying your shop to a celebrity can put your brand at risk. Yet Jim Stowers and his team are standing by Lance Armstrong's charity.

On Friday, the cyclist was stripped of his seven Tour de France victories after he gave up the fight against performance-enhancement charges. Yet InvestmentNews' Jason Kephart reports that American Century [profile] will continue to support Armstrong's Livestrong foundation, for which its target-date funds are branded.

"We have a shared passion for fighting cancer," a company spokesman told the trade pub. "Our relationship is with the foundation and we will continue to support Livestrong. You can't take away what Lance and his foundation have done for the 28 million people in the world living with cancer."

Am Century founder Stowers and his wife, Virginia, both survived cancer. The mutual fund shop donates an undisclosed flat fee to Livestrong based on the assets in the target-date funds. Separately, more than 40 percent of Am Century's profits fund a cancer research institute in the Stowers' name. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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