MutualFundWire.com: TEAM Enters the '40 Act Race

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Tuesday, December 22, 2009

TEAM Enters the '40 Act Race

TEAM Financial Asset Management, a separate accounts manager since 1994, on Monday threw its hat into the mutual fund ring. The Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based company rolled out its inaugural mutual fund offering, TEAM Asset Strategy Fund, which is available through Schwab. The fund's expense ratio is currently capped at 195 basis points.

TEAM officials are in discussions to offer the fund via TD Ameritrade, Ameriprise, and Scottrade by early January, said Charles Brennaman, one of the fund's two portfolio managers, in an interview with The MFWire. TEAM is also working to get the fund on the Pershing platform.

Also in the first quarter of 2010, Brennaman hopes to target BB&T Scott and Springfield to distribute the fund.

“Now that we're a live fund we're working on getting the fund added to a number of distribution platforms so that we can attract a broad array of registered investment advisors," Brennaman said. "We're implementing a four-phase distribution plan based on initial funding and then focus-selling to the RIA market first in our geographic area, which includes five states plus another five that our clients are in, and then expanding in the latter half of next year to the RIA market outside our geographic footprint as we are added to more platforms,” Brennaman explained.

The fund invests in specific asset classes across the globe that the firm believes will post strong performances throughout variable market cycles.

“The fund is ideally suited for the RIA advisor looking to grow his fee-based business by offering hedge-fund like performance without the fees or volatility," Brennaman said. "One of our strengths with this fund is our ability to service the clients that come to us and our strong history and culture of client service. We have the strong sense that the RIA market is looking for a new product, something other than a core, S&P 500-based product...those are good products but we'd like to add a new product that has a client-service element within our niche geographic footprint in central Pennsylvania,” he added.

TEAM Financial aims to grow assets to approximately $100 million over the next few months, Brennaman said, adding that the fund's net expense ratio should drop to roughly 178 bps once assets reach $50 million.

TEAM Financial manages more than $125 million for high-net-worth individuals. Unified Fund Services is the fund's retail and distribution servicer.

Company Press Release

*TEAM Financial Asset Management Launches Mutual Fund

* Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (December 21, 2009) –TEAM Financial Asset Management, LLC, today launched the TEAM Asset Strategy Fund (TEAMX). It is managed by James Dailey and Charles Brennaman.

The fund will follow the same strategy that the advisor has used for its private client’s accounts since 2003. The portfolio has the flexibility to invest across the globe, focusing on specific asset classes it believes are best suited to perform well in a given economic environment.

“TEAM Asset Strategy Fund will help investors take advantage of global economic trends through a variety of investment vehicles across a wide array of asset classes,” said Dailey. “Depending on where we see opportunity, we will invest in everything from traditional equities to commodities and hedging products to help our clients accumulate assets. This approach has been successful in navigating intermediate and short-term market volatility.”

“In our firm’s history as a registered investment advisor, we’ve dedicated ourselves to working in the best interests of our clients. We believe it’s important to generate positive absolute returns, not just beat the S&P,” said Sam Lindenberg, founder of TEAM Financial. “Shareholders can count on us to apply the same hard work and investor focus that has been our hallmark for 25 years. In addition to working toward generating attractive returns, we will structure the fund to employ features that help manage overall risk.”

TEAM’s investment selection process involves “navigating crowd madness,” said Brennaman. “We use complex systems analysis to analyze how the cyclical swings in investor’s risk appetite can affect market prices over the short to intermediate term.” By identifying these anomalies, TEAM selects the asset classes and securities within them believed to offer the best stocks at the best price at the best time for the portfolio.

Complex systems analysis is a technique typically used by quantum physicists and mathematicians to identify structure in seemingly random chaotic events, such as the unseen but known structures found in beehives or snowflakes. In finance, its laws are applied to help identify the inflection points where trends will change and prices will be affected.

The TEAM Asset Strategy Fund is available through Schwab and direct from the fund at www.teamassetstrategy.com. It is anticipated to be added to the Ameritrade and Pershing platforms in early 2010.