Wells Fargo Funds Management, LLC, the adviser to the Wells Fargo Advantage Funds, and its affiliate Evergreen Investment Management Company, LLC, the adviser to the Evergreen Funds, have announced plans to “streamline and strengthen their mutual fund product offerings.”

According to an announcement, the plans include a series of fund mergers, reorganizations, and liquidations, which, following approval by fund shareholders, will result in a Wells Fargo Advantage Funds family offering 128 mutual funds, variable trust funds, and Wells Fargo Managed Account CoreBuilder Shares.     

“Uniting these two mutual fund families gives us a tremendous opportunity to better serve our clients by offering a powerful array of products that takes advantage of the strengths of both organizations,” said Karla Rabusch, president of Wells Fargo Advantage Funds. “We are thrilled with the quality, breadth, and depth of the investment options that will be available to investors.”      
Proposal Designs

The proposals are designed to both eliminate product overlap and reduce costs to shareholders, while making the resulting product lineup compelling, comprehensive, and easy to navigate. The proposals include the following:      

• 27 Evergreen Funds will be reorganized into new Wells Fargo Advantage Funds;
• 53 mutual funds from both fund families will merge; and
• four Evergreen Funds and one Wells Fargo Advantage Fund will be liquidated.      

These proposals have been unanimously approved by the Wells Fargo Advantage Funds and Evergreen Funds Boards of Trustees, according to the announcement.       

“Our goal has always been to offer investors access to the independent thinking of best-in-class asset managers with time-tested investment strategies,” said Andrew Owen, head of Wells Fargo Funds Management’s Marketing, Investments and Product group. “These actions enhance the overall quality of our investment offerings, while preserving the agility of our multi-boutique investment model.”

Following the fund mergers and reorganizations, Wells Fargo Funds Management will serve as investment adviser to all of the funds. Evergreen portfolio managers will continue to run Funds as part of Wells Capital Management, the institutional “multi-boutique” asset management firm within Wells Fargo’s Asset Management Group, which serves as subadvisor to many Wells Fargo Advantage Funds.

Wells Capital Management is one of 17 distinct investment firms that Wells Fargo Funds Management currently engages to subadvise investment products across a variety of asset classes and styles, including equity, fixed-income, asset allocation, and money market. 

A summary of the fund changes is available here.