Wachovia Corp. has transferred $16 billion in fixed-income assets from Wachovia Asset Management (WAM) to Evergreen Investment Management (EIM), letting go two members of its seven-person taxable fixed-income team. Three others chose to leave. The asset shift is part of an effort to pool the assets of WAM following its recent purchase by First Union, says Chad Peterson, spokesman for EIM. The assets include taxable and non-taxable mutual funds and individually managed accounts.
Peterson said individually managed accounts will go to Evergreen's Charlotte location. The core assets, benchmarked against Lehman Brothers indices, will be managed by Tattersall Advisory Group, an EIM subsidiary in Richmond. Both WAM and EIM are wholly owned subsidiaries of Wachovia Corp.
Peterson says the decision to move the WAM assets to Evergreen was made because EIM's $127 billion in fixed-income assets are larger, have existed longer and have a solid track record.
Wayne Morgan, former head of fixed-income, and Michael Holt, research head, portfolio manager and senior v.p., were both let go. They declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding their departure. Holt, who had worked at WAM for 11 years, has taken a position as a portfolio manager at Martin & Co., a $1.8 billion investment firm in Knoxville. In the newly created position, he reports to Ted Flickinger, executive v.p. Morgan says he is looking for a new job.
The other two portfolio managers, Rick Nelson and Michael Sebesta, were offered positions at Wachovia Corp., but have joined TRUSCO Capital Management in Atlanta. Nelson declined comment and Sebesta could not be reached. They had each worked at Wachovia for over 10 years.