Mark Eveans, president and chief investment officer of the $1.35 billion Overland, Kansas-based Meritage Portfolio Management, is fully aware how big and competitive the U.S. mutual fund market is. He still thinks the industry could benefit from some new blood.

"We see a need for new blood in the investment space. It is a huge crowd. It is incredibly competitive. We all know that. Who are we to think we can make a difference? We have an incredibly good product set of products to sell," he recently told MFWire. "We believe strongly in the idea that individual securities, properly vetted to determine whether they are ripe for investment, is one of the best ways to achieve alpha."

Meritage immigrated into '40 Act Country on the first of the month with the launch of three mutual funds: the Meritage Value Equity Fund (MPVEX/MVEBX), Meritage Growth Equity Fund (MPGEX,MPGIX) and the Meritage Yield-Focus Equity Fund (MPYEX/MPYIX). The last fund is an alt product.

The firm is following a multistage plan for entering the RIA space, which includes forging key sales alliances, according to Diarmuid Boran, managing director for business development at Meritage.

According to Eveans, "we are very impressed with the growth of the RIA space itself."

For example, the firm will soon announce a partnership with a firm that will provide them with a salesforce, according to Boran.

Neither Eveans or Boran could reveal the name of the firm yet, that announcement will be coming in the near future, but they said that it was a business with "direct experience in wholesaling mutual funds." Moreover, the alliance will help Meritage generate demand in the RIA space and then followup with broker-dealers.

"We're very excited about the opportunity," Boran said.

The three new funds are now available on Fido's, Schwab's and Pershing's platforms. Boran says they expect the products will be approved to go on TD sooner rather than later.  

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE