First American Funds Joins Nuveen

Nuveen Investments announced this morning that  U.S. Bancorp's (USB) asset-management business, FAF Advisors (U.S. Bancorp will retain FAF's money market funds), will join its Nuveen Asset Management unit. In exchange, U.S. Bancorp will receive a 9.5% stake in Nuveen Investments and $80 million in cash. The Minneapolis-based FAF has $25 billion in assets under management and serves as advisor to 41 First American Funds.

FAF, which will remain in Minneapolis, will be combined with Chicago-based Nuveen Asset Management, which runs $75 billion in municipal fixed-income assets. The resulting entity will retain the Nuveen Asset Management name; in the future, the First American Funds might be branded under the Nuveen FAF name. Tom Schreier, FAF's CEO, will become vice chairman of wealth management for Nuveen Investments. Bill Huffman, the cohead and COO of Nuveen Asset Management, will become president of the unit.

Alan Brown, executive vice president at Nuveen, says the combination will accelerate the growth of its mutual fund lineup overnight, boosting assets from $23.5 billion to more than $40 billion after the deal closes before the end of the year. There could be some lineup overlap. Nuveen Asset Management is a muni shop and First American's funds include some national and single-state muni-bond funds, along with taxable-bond funds and U.S.- and international-equities funds. Other boutiques under the Nuveen umbrella, such as Tradewinds Global Investors, Winslow Capital, and Symphony Asset Management, also run equity mutual funds.

Head of AllianceBernstein Growth Equity Exits
Lisa Shalett, AllianceBernstein's head of growth equities, has left the firm. Sharon Fay, head of value equities, has been named CIO of equities, and members of the growth team will begin reporting to her, as well.

Shalett left AllianceBernstein to become CIO for the global wealth-management division of Merrill Lynch (now part of  Bank of America (BAC)). Her start date hasn't yet been announced.

Also, Vadim Zlotnikov has been named chief market strategist and will lead a new macroeconomic-research group. He'll retain oversight of quantitative analytics for AllianceBernstein's growth portfolios.

PIMCO to Distribute Itself
 Allianz SE  will no longer handle distribution for its PIMCO subsidiary's funds. PIMCO is setting up its own distribution arm that should be ready in early 2011. This shift marks another step in PIMCO's evolution. The firm best known for fixed income began building an in-house equities team last year.

Putnam Cuts Redemption Fees
As of Aug. 2, 40 Putnam funds will no longer charge a 1% redemption fee. The fees were designed to discourage the rapid short-term trading that can harm long-term shareholders. They gained prominence in the wake of the market-timing scandal in the early 2000s, which also ensnared Putnam. Recently, however, a number of firms have begun eliminating these fees if their prospectuses already ban excessive trading.

AllianceBernstein Tees Up Active ETFs
AllianceBernstein might be getting into the active ETF business. The firm has filed with the SEC to ensure they have the option of offering active ETFs. The filing cites a quant-based large-cap strategy, but that wouldn't necessarily be the first offering they rolled out upon obtaining SEC approval. The firm is still figuring out distribution details should it decide to launch the business.

Analyst Pan Changes Its Stripes
 Firsthand Technology Value  is getting a facelift. It will no longer be an open-end fund; instead it will morph into a business-development company that trades in the secondary market like a closed-end fund and isn't redeemable. The fund has held a lot of illiquid private equity in the past couple of years, and over five- and 10-year trailing periods it's been one of the worst-performing tech funds.

Etc.
DoubleLine recently filed with the SEC to launch the proposed Multi-Asset Growth fund, which can invest across multiple asset classes, including U.S. and foreign equities and bonds, real estate, infrastructure, currencies, and commodities. The fund will be managed by DoubleLine founder Jeffrey Gundlach, along with Philip Barach, Luz Padilla, Bonnie Baha, and Samuel Garza. The filing warns that the fund's allocations might shift rapidly, and notes that there are no limits on how much of the fund's assets can be allocated to specific asset classes or sectors.

Dimitre Genov has joined Rudolph-Riad Younes as comanager on the $70 million  Artio Global Equity . Genov replaces Keith Walter in the role. This change doesn't affect Younes' larger charges,  Artio International Equity (BJBIX) and  Artio International Equity II (JETAX).

 Hussman Strategic Growth (HSGFX) just got a little cheaper. The expense ratio was recently lowered from 1.04% to 1.02%, reflecting a reduction in the investment-advisory fee and asset growth.

Counterpoint Select  will be closing its doors and liquidating all assets by Aug. 31, 2010.

The Direxion board of trustees announced the liquidation of Direxion PSI Core Strength , Direxion PSI Macro Trends , and Direxion PSI Total Return  by Aug. 30, 2010.

Robeco announced that Robeco Boston Partners Long/Short Equity (BPLEX) is now closed to new investors, but new shares will still be offered to existing shareholders. Previously, in May, the fund closed its doors to all investors.

On Sept. 27, 2010,  Columbia Income (LIIAX) will change its name to Columbia Corporate Income. The new name better reflects the fund's more than 80% allocation to corporate and nongovernment bonds.

Giri Devulapally and Alan Gutmann joined the portfolio-management team of JPMorgan US Equity (JUEAX).

Tadashi Yoshimitsu joined the portfolio-management team of Nomura Partners Asia Pacific ex Japan , and Yoshiaki Saito replaced Akira Ueno as comanager of Nomura Partners Global Equity Income .

Richard Wu is no longer comanager of Allianz RCM China Equity . Christina Chung remains on the fund as its sole manager.

Mutual fund analysts David Falkof and Katie Rushkewicz contributed to this article.