Portland, Oregon-based Harness Investment Management Group, formed by two Pimco alums, is launching its inaugural fund. The Harness Absolute Return Fund will carry an expense ratio of 179 basis points and is expected to be fully operational by December 31.

Originally, the initial offering period, which commenced on September 29, was scheduled to end on October 29, but it has since been extended until the end of December to allow Harness more time to work on having the fund added to Fidelity and Schwab's platforms.

Harness was formed earlier this year by Don Yocham and Andre Mallegol and now has an investment team of five.

“We formed the company after exploring whether there was an appetite for this sort of product back in the spring and early summer," said Yocham, who will manage the fund, in an interview with The MFWire.

"The product itself is very amenable to foundations and endowments given the strategies they try to employ, as well as institutional advisors,” he said.

As to whether more funds are in store for Harness, Yocham said they'll consider the possibility down the road but “we're not a product shop; we thought carefully about launching this particular fund.”

While Yocham was previously the chief investment officer and director of asset management at First Independent Bank and Mallegol held business development, strategic planning, and product management responsibilities at Duxbury Financial prior to founding Harness, both trace their roots back to Pimco. Mallegol spent ten years at Pimco, ultimately becoming a senior vice president in business development and co-managing a business unit that focused on RIAs. Meanwhile, Yocham had worked as a vice president and real return product manager at the SoCal investment manager.

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Company Press Release

Ex PIMCO Professionals Launch Absolute Return Mutual Fund

PORTLAND, Ore., Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Harness Investment Management Group, LLC announced today that they will launch a new mutual fund, the Harness Absolute Return Fund (Ticker: HIARX). This new fund, currently in an initial offering period, is expected to commence operations November 30, 2009. The Fund's advisor is Harness Investment Management Group, LLC.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20091118/NE13327LOGO ) Founded by Andre Mallegol and Don Yocham, both formerly with PIMCO, Harness Investment Management Group, LLC focuses on providing alternative investment products that are aligned with the evolving needs of fiduciaries. The firm was formed in 2008 and has offices in Portland, Oregon and Rockland, Massachusetts.

The conventional approach to investing seeks to provide excess returns relative to a benchmark that represents a particular asset class or static asset allocation. However, the goal of most investors is to earn positive returns after inflation, taxes and fees. For that reason, the Harness Absolute Return Fund seeks to achieve absolute returns above inflation, as measured by the Consumer-Price Index (CPI). This index is not an investable index and does not represent asset values, but is instead a measure of purchasing power. The Fund strives to accomplish this through active management across a range of asset classes utilizing a top-down, global, macro-economic process. The advisor has managed accounts with a comparable strategy for over three years.

According to Don Yocham, the Fund's portfolio manager, "This Fund is an alternative to conventional investment approaches, attempting to provide a solution for investors concerned about achieving their own goals rather than the goals of their peers. Investing is ultimately and unavoidably an exercise in judgment and our Fund is designed for those investors that place value in our ability to exercise judgment regarding near-term and long-term investment opportunities in absolute, not relative, terms."

Please visit the Fund advisor's website at www.HarnessIMG.com to learn more about the team and their investment process.

 

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