Just in time for the new year, San Francisco-based RS Investments launched three fixed-income funds on Thursday, rounding out its fund offerings at eight, InvestmentNews reports.

The new funds -- the RS Strategic Income Fund, the RS High Yield Municipal Bond Fund, and the RS Floating Rate Fund -- will each offer multiple share classes. Expenses for the A share class are capped at 35 basis points through April 30, 2011.

Helping to get the funds off the ground was Guardian Investor Services who provided $135 million in seed money and is the sub-advisor to the three new funds, in addition to managing RS' five other fixed-income funds.

“Right now we're in an environment where there are plenty of good fixed-income opportunities across the board,” Lesli Barbi, head of RS' fixed income investments, told InvestmentNews. Barbi will oversee allocations and rebalancing assets for the Strategic Income fund and lead a team of six that will actively co-manage the fund.

The High Yield Municipal Bond Fund, which aims to capitalize on the tax protection municipals offer should taxes go up, is co-managed by Alex Grant and analyst Sylvan Feldstein, who also manage RS' Tax-Exempt Fund. Marc Gross and Kevin Booth manage the Floating Rate Fund, which will focus on bank loans and is designed to shield investors from rising interest rates.

“We sat down and asked ourselves, 'How is the world turning and how might it turn?'" Terry Otton, chief executive of RS, told InvestmentNews. “When we thought about the considerations of possibly rising inflation, the value of the dollar the likely consequences of the growth of economies globally, we concluded that people would want to address those very issues.” 

Edited by: Patricia Kelly


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