PNC Advisors, the high net worth wealth management division of PNC Financial Services of Pittsburgh, has filed with the SEC to launch a new family of funds of funds using the funds and investment capabilities of its investment advisory affiliate BlackRock, Inc. of New York. The funds will cater to the needs of affluent investors.
Each of the PNC Profile Funds will invest in varying percentages among 10 existing BlackRock equity funds and nine BlackRock fixed-income funds, according to the SEC filing. Two of BlackRock's money market funds will also be used as the underlying mutual funds for the PNC Profile Funds. Each fund will offer a different investment objective and use a particular asset allocation model ranging from conservative to highly aggressive.
The funds include the Preservation Profile Fund, the Conservative Profile Fund, the Moderate Profile Fund, the Balanced Profile Fund, the Growth Profile Fund and the Aggressive Profile Fund. All of the new PNC Profile Funds were created through the conversion of similarly allocated and managed collective investment funds that PNC Bank managed on behalf of its private clients.
PNC Advisors, which filed its preliminary registration statement for the six new funds of funds on December 22, will offer two classes of no-load shares. The "Service Shares" class will be offered to the retail clients of financial planners and other investment intermediaries. The "Institutional Shares" class will be made available to PNC's bank clients or its affiliates that have at least $2 million in assets. The institutional share class will also be offered under employer-sponsored retirement plans.
Both share classes will carry a 10 basis point management fee and a 25 basis point 12b-1 distribution fee. But as funds-of-funds, each fund will be subject to the additional expenses charged by each of the underlying BlackRock mutual funds, according to the filing.
A call to The PNC Financial Services Group seeking comment was not returned by press time.
PNC Advisors, which has 320,000 clients, currently manages $71 billion in assets for wealthy individuals as well as for employee benefit plans, charitable accounts and endowments. It offers affluent investors separate account investment management, trust services, private banking, business services and estate planning. PNC Advisors is a subsidiary of The PNC Financial Services Group.
BlackRock, which is known predominantly as a fixed-income manager although it manages equity assets as well, had $191 billion under management as of September 30, according to an SEC filing. BlackRock is the investment advisory and asset management unit of PNC.
BlackRock currently manages three separate fund families: the retail BlackRock Funds with $28 billion in assets, as well as several closed-end BlackRock funds with a collective $8 billion under management. It also acts as the advisor to the Provident Institutional Funds, PNC's institutional fund complex.
The PNC Financial Services Group is also the parent company to PFPC of Wilmington, Del., the mutual fund servicing unit which provides transfer agency and fund accounting services to mutual funds operating domestically.
