Hartford Funds to Branch Out Into Equities

As it reaches its 10^th year, Hartford Mutual Funds plans to expand the funds it offers to include equity mutual funds, which are currently handled by outside sub-advisor Wellington Management, The Wall Street Journal reports.

In particular, these will include a number of small- and mid-cap funds.

Hartford decided to offer the funds in house as it has grown and Wellington "is running into capacity constraints," said John Walters, president of the U.S. wealth management group at Hartford Financial Services.

"Wellington is a huge shop and has a tremendous amount of assets under their management," Walters said. "The area you reach capacity in first are smaller stocks, so it's not surprising."

The Hartford decided to close its small company, mid-cap and mid-cap value funds to new investors in August 2004.