Leavell

With an average overall Morningstar Rating of 4.5 stars across its open-end and exchange-traded products, the firm has demonstrated its ability to deploy capital successfully for investors. Open-end and exchange-traded fund fees are a weakness at the firm, contributing negatively to the rating. On average, the firm charges fees on its funds that are in the second most-expensive quintile of category peers. With the current market environment of fee compression, this is cause for concern, as investors may flock to alternate asset managers over time to get a better deal. Despite other redeeming qualities as a firm, Leavell has seen some disruption among its portfolio management ranks in the past five years, denoted by elevated turnover compared to peer asset-management firms. Long-term stability tends to support positive results.