Veteran Growth Managers Leave AllianceBernstein, Vanguard

Jim Reilly and his brother Mike Reilly are leaving AllianceBernstein at the end of June. Both are part of the team managing AllianceBernstein Large Cap Growth APGAX, which owns a mixed long-term record but has been a solid performer in recent years. Current comanager Scott Wallace will take over Jim Reilly's duties as team leader, while the other five team members will remain. Jim Reilly and the team had taken over the fund following the February 2006 departure of Thomas Kamp.

The change also affects Vanguard U.S. Growth VWUSX. The team shares subadvisory duties on the fund with John Jostrand of William Blair. Jim Reilly and the Large Cap Growth team replaced AllianceBernstein's Alan Levi on the fund less than two years ago. In that time, the fund has trailed both the large-growth category and the Russell 1000 index.

It has been a decade of manager changes and poor performance for U.S. Growth. Over the last 10 years it has been among the poorest-performing funds in the Vanguard stable. Through March 10, 2010, it had lost 6.5% annualized in the past decade and trailed more than 90% of its peers. The fund's woes date back to when former subadvisor Lincoln Capital Management misplayed the tech-stock boom and bust. Vanguard ultimately fired Lincoln and hired Alliance in 2001. Jostrand joined three years later.

Janus Expands Use of Performance Fees
Janus has proposed adding performance fees to five funds: Janus JANSX, Janus Twenty JAVLX, Janus Forty JDCAX, Janus Overseas JAOSX, and Janus Global Opportunities JGVAX. Corresponding Janus Aspen funds would also get performance fees. Shareholders will vote on the measure at an upcoming meeting. This isn't new for Janus; the fund family already uses performance fees on some other funds, viewing it as a way to better align managers' interests with those of shareholders.PAGEBREAK

Janus also seeks to move Global Opportunities under the umbrella of its subsidiary, Perkins Investment Management. Pending shareholder approval, the fund will be subadvised by Perkins, with current manager Gregory Kolb becoming a Perkins employee.

What a Difference a Decade Makes
Wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of the Internet bubble's peak. As my colleague Gregg Wolper has noted, many large-value funds' 10-year returns look quite different now that the late-1990s tech boom has dropped off of their records. To mark the event we took a quick look at our large-value Analyst Picks through two different lenses: over 10- and 13-year time periods, the latter because it incorporates several bull and bear markets.