Columbia Management [see profile] just kicked off a big push in the absolute return space. Today the Ameriprise subsidiary launched its second and third absolute return mutual funds, accompanied by a special ad campaign in more than a dozen online and print publications. (Columbia already offers its Absolute Return Currency and Income Fund, a legacy RiverSource product.)

"We see growing demand for lower risk products with more consistent return potential," Chris Thompson, head of product and marketing at Columbia, told The MFWire in an interview.

The new offerings -- the Columbia Absolute Return Multi-Strategy Fund and the Columbia Absolute Return Multi-Strategy Enhanced Fund -- each draw from a pool of ten different Columbia strategies.

"Each of the building blocks is an absolute return strategy," Thomspon explained, noting that the strategies are drawn from existing Columbia strategies and funds that aren't necessarily absolute-return-oriented to begin with, like the Dividend Income Fund. "We're isolating the excess return that they generate on a consistent basis ... We're using futures to strip the beta out of their return stream."

In doing so, Thompson said, the new products offer "very good diversification for client portfolios" by "tapping into different, uncorrelated return strategies," aiming for lower volatility than, and low correlation with, their respective indices (the S&P 500 Index for the Enhanced fund and the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index for the non-Enhanced one). And that's where the ad campaign comes in.

Thompson confirmed that, with the help of ad firms Carpenter and Sullivan, Columbia's placed ads starting today in a number of publications, including: Barron's, Bloomberg, InvestmentNews, Morningstar and the Wall Street Journal. The ads urge advisors to help their clients "take an alternative path in investing" and refer readers to a new site, columbiaARfunds.com, created specifically for this dual-launch.

The Absolute Return Enhanced Multi-Strategy Fund, which aims for smoothed out, historical equity returns, i.e. eight percent, offers six share classes: A shares for a 575-basis-point load and 165 bps in expenses; B shares for a 500-bps deferred load and a 240-bps expense ratio; C shares for a 100-bps trail and a 240-bps expense ratio: I shares for 127 bps per year; R shares for 190 bps; and W shares for 165 bps. The Absolute Return Multi-Strategy Fund, which aims for smoothed out, historical bond returns, i.e. five percent, offers: A shares for a 300-bps load, 100 bps deferred load and 147-expense ratio; B shares for a 500-bps deferred load and 222-bps expense ratio; C shares for a 100-bps trail and 222-bps expense ratio; I shares for a 109-bps expense ratio; R shares for 172 bps; and W shares for 147 bps.

Kent Peterson (senior PM for alternative and absolute return investments) and Todd White (head of alternative and absolute return investments) PM both funds. Columbia serves as distributor and transfer agent for both funds. 

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