American General subsidiary of North American Funds has come out with a D-share class on its floating rate loan fund as a way to get exposure for the fund in load-waived brokerage programs. The company previously had two floating rate funds, one under its no-load CypressTree name and one under its North American Funds, load channel brand. Those funds have been merged as the company did away with CypressTree as a retail brand, but there was no share class designed for load-waived programs. The North American floating rate fund has offered B- and C-shares. The D-share has been created specifically to make the loan fund available for load-waived, fee-based programs, as it does not carry a sales charge. "The difference is branding," said Joe Grause, president of the North American Funds. The loan fund asset class has been one of the more popular niche asset classes over the past few years, with industry heavyweights Fidelity Investments, Franklin Templeton Investments and Eaton Vance all devoting significant product development efforts to loan funds. These companies have recently come out with open-end versions of loan funds, but Grause said North American does not have any plans to pursue that type of fund at this time. The existing loan fund offers monthly redemptions, which has satisfied clients' need for liquidity, he said.
North American Offering New Version Of Loan Fund