By Scott Ronalds

The Castlerock funds, which were formerly the Hartford funds, are becoming CI, Cambridge and Black Creek funds. Got it?

This confusing reorganization is the result of another round of mergers in fundland. It’s CI’s turn this time, as they plan to terminate 19 funds through mergers (further details here). Manulife also recently announced their intention to turf 17 of their funds (through mergers) later in the year. Investors Group and AGF did some similar cleaning up last year (see Another Lump in the Rug and Fund Company Calls the Cleaner).

Investors who hold funds being affected by the mergers should ensure they are comfortable with the proposed changes, which may result in a new manager, objective and fee. A merger can result in a fundamental change to a fund and its personnel, in which case investors need to go back to square one and reassess the holding.

All this housekeeping makes you wonder why so many fund companies have such vast product lineups. The inevitable culling leads to burdensome regulatory work for the fund companies and headaches for investors.

Keep it simple.