Brinker Capital has launched three 40-Act liquid alternative mutual funds – Crystal Strategy Absolute Income Fund, Crystal Strategy Absolute Return Fund, and Crystal Strategy Leveraged Alternative Fund.
The new funds are designed to mirror the investment strategy of the firm’s Crystal Strategy suite of global macro funds, and will be offered primarily through the insurance-based and independent broker dealer channels as well as through registered investment advisors.
The funds are available via the Fidelity IWS and NFS, Pershing, Schwab, TD Ameritrade and LPL custodial platforms.
In 2009, Brinker Capital launched The Brinker Capital Crystal Strategy I, one of the investment industry’s first absolute return portfolios embedded in a separately managed account format, as a means of helping financial advisors preserve client capital in down markets while capturing appreciation in up markets. Crystal Strategy I, which is managed by Brinker’s in-house investment management team, performs like a traditional absolute return investment, but has lower fees in comparison with many funds, and offers daily liquidity, daily transparency into account holdings, and an investment minimum of USD100,000.
It is on this same strategy that Brinker Capital’s three new liquid alternative mutual funds are based.
“We had high expectations for Crystal Strategy when we launched it four years ago, but the reception of financial advisors and their clients to the product surpassed anything we could have imagined,” says John Coyne, vice chairman of Brinker Capital. “Over past several years, we’ve had requests from numerous advisors for Crystal Strategy in a mutual fund format, only with lower investment minimums. Our new funds are an answer to their requests.”
The three funds each have their own specific investment strategies and places within an investment portfolio, but they do share certain characteristics, including broad asset class exposure, diverse strategies, highly-focused stock selection and portfolio hedging and risk management. Additionally, each fund comprises three traditional (domestic equity, international equity, fixed income) and three non-traditional asset classes (private equity, absolute return, real assets). The investment minimum is USD1,000 for Class A shares of each fund.
The Absolute Income Fund (CSTFX) seeks to provide current income and downside protection to conventional equity markets with absolute (positive) returns over full market cycles as a secondary objective.
The Absolute Return Fund (CSRAX) seeks to provide positive (absolute) returns over full market cycles.
The Leveraged Alternative Fund (CSLFX) seeks to provide long-term positive absolute return with reduced correlation to conventional equity markets as a secondary objective.
