A four-year-old SMA shop in New Jersey just entered the mutual fund business directly.

Steve Selver, CEO of Bramshill Investments, confirms the recent launch of the Hackensack-based firm's first mutual fund, the Bramshill Income Performance Fund, powered by the firm's flagship absolute return fixed income strategy. The fund debuted with about $40 million in seed capital from RIAs, and the employee-owned asset manager has about $340 million in total AUM.

Bramshill founder and CIO Art DeGaetano and Bramshill PM and analyst Derek Pines PM the new fund. Third-party marketing firm Havener Capital Partners will lead the RIA channel sales and marketing efforts for the fund, while BBD is the fund's accounting firm and Morgan Lewis & Bockius provides legal counsel. U.S. Bancorp Fund Services is the transfer agent, U.S. Bank itself handles custody, and U.S. Bank's Quasar Distributors is the fund's distributor.

"Our strategy was originally created to solve investors' challenges in fixed income, but was only available as a separately managed account," Selver states. "When our investors requested a mutual fund, we listened. Now through our relationship with Havener, we look forward to partnering with other RIAs facing the same challenges."

"RIAs have shared that fixed income is a primary challenge," states Stacy Havener, founder and CEO of her eponymous firm. "Adding Bramshill as a client reflects our commitment to respond to advisors' needs with solutions from high-quality managers who may not hit the typical investment screens."

Separately, Bramshill also recently indirectly entered the mutual fund business, too. Bramshill teamed up with Trust and Fiduciary Management Services (TFMS) to create a new Bramshill subsidiary, Trust and Fiduciary Income Partners (TFIP). TFIP has about $120 million in AUM and will take over TFMS' subadvisory duties on a pair of LoCorr mutual funds, with Bramshill's DeGaetano co-PMing alongside TFMS' Steven Carhart.

Bramshill's core strategy dates back to 2009, when DeGaetano was at hedge fund shop GLG Partners. The Man Group bought GLG in 2010, and in 2012 DeGaetano spun out Bramshill. 

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