Third Avenue Names New Managers

Third Avenue Management LLC, the investment advisor to the Third Avenue fund family, recently announced two promotions.

The firm appointed senior research analyst Jason Wolf as comanager of the $1.6 billion  Third Avenue Real Estate Value (TAREX).

Wolf joined Third Avenue in April 2004 and already serves as a comanager on some Third Avenue institutional and offshore funds.

Wolf will share responsibility for managing the fund with Michael Winer, who has managed the fund since its September 1998 inception.

Third Avenue also promoted Thomas Lapointe to comanager of  Third Avenue Focused Credit .

Lapointe will manage the $900 million mutual fund with Jeffrey Gary, who has run it since its inception just over one year ago. Lapointe joined Third Avenue in June 2009 with Gary, and the two have worked together since then to build the firm's credit research team.

Nevada Hires Putnam for 529 Plan
Nevada State Treasurer Kate Marshall and Nevada College Savings Plans Board announced they have selected Putnam Investments as a program manager for the state's 529 college-savings plan. The move will be effective Oct. 1.

While the underlying investment lineup was not disclosed, it is expected that the plan will feature a tuition payment analysis tool and will offer a portal designed to offer quick and easy access to all of Putnam's 529 client plans. Nevada currently offers other college-savings products from Upromise, Vanguard, and USAA. Four months ago, Ohio's 529 plan replaced Putnam with BlackRock.

Etc.
Sharon Fay, head of equities for  AllianceBernstein (AB), recently promoted Chris Toub to be director of equities. This is a new position that will help manage Value and Growth Equities businesses.

GE Small-Cap Equity  recently added Kennedy Capital Management as a subadvisor on the fund. Kennedy joins Champlain Investment Partners, GlobeFlex Capital, Palisade Capital Management, and SouthernSun Asset Management. In addition, David Wiederecht, a chief investment officer at GE Asset Management, will replace Judith Studer as one of the six portfolio managers.

Turner Spectrum , a multimanager fund that invests in long/short equity strategies, has added the firm's Titan strategy to its lineup of investments. According to a recent SEC filing, Titan is a large-cap long/short strategy. The fund invests in a total of seven Turner strategies.

Principal will ask shareholders of Principal SmallCap Value I  to approve a merger with the company's Principal SmallCap Value II (PPVIX) offering. SmallCap Value I is a small fund with $128 million in assets; SmallCap Value II is almost 6 times the $723 million in assets. Both funds have below-average track records.

The boards of RiverSource Funds and the Columbia Nations Funds have agreed to have a consolidated board of directors/trustees for the open-end funds they oversee. The consolidation would be subject to shareholder approval next year.

Steven Barry replaced Eileen Rominger on the portfolio-management team of Goldman Sachs U.S. Equity (GAGVX).

Paul Dickson is no longer comanager of Eaton Vance Commodity Strategy . John Brynjolfsson remains as the fund's sole manager.

The board of Nationwide Mutual Funds announced several subadvisor changes to its funds. Turner Investment Partners will replace Aberdeen Asset Management as the subadvisor to Nationwide Growth (NMFAX), and Diamond Hill Capital Management will join Aberdeen as a subadvisor to  Nationwide (NWFAX). These changes will take effect Oct. 18, 2010. In addition, pending shareholder approval, Nationwide Large Cap Value  will merge into Nationwide. Lastly, the board approved the liquidation of Nationwide Value  by Oct. 22, 2010.

Pending shareholder approval, Virtus Mid-Cap Growth (PHSKX) will merge into Virtus Mid-Cap Core (VMACX).

Pending shareholder approval, Dreyfus Structured Midcap  will merge into  Dreyfus Active MidCap (DNLDX).

Mutual fund analysts Rob Wherry and David Falkof contributed to this report.