A Rare Shakeup at Manning & Napier

Morningstar is placing all rated Manning & Napier funds Under Review following the departure of two of the firm's senior investment professionals and the reorganization of its research groups. This includes the firm's World Opportunities, Equity, and Pro-Blend series of funds--all previously with Morningstar Analyst Ratings of Gold--as well as its previously Silver-rated target-date funds.

On March 12, 2015, Manning & Napier announced the departures of two members--Jack Bauer and Brian Gambill--of its 14-member senior research group. Bauer, who is retiring after more than two decades with the firm, had been a member of the SRG since 1992 and led the firm's fixed-income portfolio group. Gambill joined the SRG in 2002 and ran the firm's capital goods & materials sector group. That group covers energy stocks, which was a notable source of underperformance in 2014 and over the five-year period through December 2014. The tenure and stability of the SRG have been two of the firm's strong points. The most recent departure prior to these two occurred in 2001 when Ebrahim Busheri left, though he rejoined the firm in 2011.

Concurrent with these two departures, Manning & Napier reorganized its research groups. Busheri has assumed the role as director of investments. That role will encompass the responsibilities previously held by Jeff Coons and Jeff Herrmann as co-directors of research. Coons remains president of the firm and Herrmann will help fill the void left by Gambill's exit from the capital goods & materials sector group.

Busheri, Coons, and Herrmann will remain on the SRG, and that group has been cut to five members from 14. (Marc Tommasi and Christian Andreach are the other two members.) Most members of the SRG were previously collectively named on the firm's flagship funds, and the changes in the group's structure will likely entail changes to those funds' rosters.