Bank One Investment Advisors Corp. of Columbus, Ohio, has merged its One Group Family of Mutual Funds with the Pegasus Funds, which belonged to First Chicago NBD Corp. Bank One and First Chicago merged in October 1998. The merged fund family now has 48 funds with $56.2 billion in assets under management. Merging the two funds took a good deal of work since Pegasus had 30 funds and One Group had 34 funds, said Bank One chairman and ceo David Kundert. However, no funds were completely eliminated, Kundert said. "Funds with similar objectives were merged," the chairman said. "We chose the best of the best and have ended up with a stronger overall family that carries with it a very strong series of Morningstar ratings and broad styles to satisfy every investor's need."
Bank One never considered keeping the funds separate, "because from a branding standpoint, it's easier to have one fund family than two," said Kundert. Kundert also said it is easier for shareholders to work with a single fund management team.
