Aquila Investment Management has brought another outside portfolio manager for one of their funds into the fold. Aquila hired the longtime manager of the Tax-Free Trust of Arizona, Todd Curtis, effective August 1. Curtis was previously managing the fund at Banc One Investment Advisors.

Curtis, who will join Aquila as senior vice president and portfolio manager, has been the sole manager of the $430 million Tax-Free Trust of Arizona for 18 years.

Diana Herrmann, vice chair and president of Aquila, explained in a press release announcing the move that Aquila has moved management of funds in-house for the last several years -- the Aquila Rocky Mountain Equity Fund in 1999, the Churchill Tax-Free Fund of Kentucky in 2000, and the Tax-Free Fund for Utah in 2001.

Aquila has no immediate plans to bring another manager in-house, said Herrmann.

The move does not change the fund's management in any way, said Barry Lee, who does marketing for Aquila. Banc One does not subadvise any of the other 11 Aquila funds, said Lee.

In mid-June, BOIA announced that it was moving most of its equity management to New York in light of the company's merger with J.P. Morgan.

Curtis and fellow BOIA manager Lynn Yturri staffed BOIA's Arizona office. Yturri will not be joining J.P. Morgan in New York, said BOIA spokeswoman Julie Crothers.  

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