Maxxum funds to vanish

Effective this month, the entire family is moving under the control Mackenzie Financial. Both companies are owned by Investors Group.

Mackenzie announced in July that the lead managers on all the funds were being let go, to be replaced by people on the existing Mackenzie team. This appears to be a prelude to a series of mergers that will wind up the MAXXUM line as the funds are absorbed into other Mackenzie entities.

The Scudder fund group has also been placed under Mackenzie’s control, but so far no announcements have been made regarding its fate.

A senior Mackenzie executive told me that the end of MAXXUM is just the start of a series of big changes in the sprawling company’s line-up. “By this time next year, we’ll have a lot fewer funds,” he said.

That would be good news for confused investors and advisors. Right now, Mackenzie has almost 240 funds under its roof, including Scudder MAXXUM and all the variations like clones, segregated funds, U.S. dollar units, and the like. It’s too much, and many of those funds must be very uneconomic for the company.

Now if CI would follow a similar course, we might get some sense back into the fu industry again. It currently has 221 offerings.

From the October 2001 edition of Mutual Funds Update, a monthly newsletter edited and published by Gordon Pape. For subscription information