Many of our client’s portfolios are holding PIMCO’s Total Return Fund. Will the fund’s performance be impacted by the fact that the chief portfolio manager, Bill Gross, is leaving the firm?
First of all, Total Return has always benefited from the input of many portfolio managers. The success of the fund rests on a time-tested, team-oriented investment process. Quoting from one of the managers of The Total Return Fund, Mark Kiesel, “I think it’s important to highlight that all three of us have already been part of the Total Return investment process for many years. As with every other generalist portfolio manager at PIMCO, Bill Gross relied on us—along with the firm’s 240 other portfolio managers–for help in generating the trade ideas that have driven the strategy’s strong historical performance. When we took over the strategy there were no surprises. It was a seamless transition.”
One of our favorite managers at PIMCO, Rob Arnott, felt there was going to be a transition from Bill Gross to a successor team at some stage. He emphasized that the Total Return fund has “an awesome team” that Bill Gross and the rest of top leadership has hand-picked over the years. “Their credentials are superb”, he says, and “their demonstrated abilities are impressive.”