Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Once a top-performing fund with assets well over double today’s value, Templeton’s flagship bond fund has been diminished by the march of passive investments.

"We seek to finance the government at the least possible cost to taxpayers over time," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Competition with an ever-rising stock market, the difficulty of raising assets and the steady march of time are just a few factors leading managers to the exit.

Already, the fund has agreed to transactions involving German wind energy project developer PNE and Altice Europe’s Portuguese fiber assets.

The 82-year-old company’s strategy has helped secure net inflows in all but one of the five years through 2018.

“Wells Fargo does not appear close to putting its Washington troubles behind it,” Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg wrote in a note.

“Everything’s on the table for consideration,” the bank's chief financial officer told investors. “He’s certainly not beholden to decisions that we made previously.”

Average management fees will be cut 8% on an asset-weighted basis.

Investors are pulling money at an accelerated pace as high fees and mediocre returns send them searching for yield elsewhere.

Some 225 funds traded for the first time over the past 12 months, down for a second-straight year.