On Monday Columbia Management [see profile] launched its second and third absolute return funds, both multi-strategy, and accompanied them with a new ad campaign [see The MFWire, 4/4/2011]. Watch for the Ameriprise subsidiary to launch more absolute return products.

"We may continue to expand the lineup [of absolute return funds]," Chris Thompson, head of product and marketing at Columbia, told The MFWire.

What might such funds look like? Both new absolute return funds -- the Columbia Absolute Return Multi-Strategy Fund and the Columbia Absolute Return Multi-Strategy Enhanced Fund -- draw from a pool of ten different absolute return versions of existing Columbia strategies, like the Dividend Income Fund.

"We're isolating the excess return that they generate on a consistent basis," Thompson explained. "We're using futures to strip the beta out of their return stream."

Thompson confided that the next step for Columbia may mean taking the absolute return slices of existing strategies and turning them into stand alone mutual funds in their own right.

"You'll also probably see us come out with additional absolute return strategies in the future," Thompson said. 

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