Morningstar is accusing a managed futures mutual fund shop of hiding fees.

Jason Kephart of InvestmentNews reports that Knollwood Investment Advisors [profile] switched from having commodity-trading advisers manage slices of its $126-million Grant Park Managed Futures Strategy Fund via separate accounts to using swap agreements. Those separate accounts were charged expense ratios and performance fees, disclosed as underlying fund fees in the prospectus but no longer disclosed.

"They were disclosing it," Nadia Papagiannis, alternatives analyst at Morningstar, told the trade pub. "Now they're hiding it."

Knollwood chairman and chief investment officer David Kavanagh declined to comment to INews.

Watch for other managed futures mutual fund shops to follow suit. Aisha Hunt, partner in Dechert's financial services practices, told the pub that "the vast majority of these funds are leaning towards" Knollwood's move.
"If they don't, they're going to be at a competitive disadvantage," Hunt said. "It's a marketing issue." 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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