Commingling (Commingled)

  

This is a fund that blends the monies of several different accounts into one single fund. The goal is to reduce trading costs on every investment and provide economies of scale to investors. The thing is...if you’re a retail investor, this word really doesn’t matter much, since you don’t have access to commingled funds. But other investors should pay attention.

Commingled funds are not regulated by the SEC and don’t require registration, under the Investment Company Act of 1940. They also don’t have a ticker like mutual funds, which means you have no idea how that fund is performing. If you’re letting someone else manage your money, it’s best to have as much regulated transparency as possible.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is a Fund of Funds?5 Views

00:00

Finance a la shmoop what is a fund of funds? all right well first there's a

00:08

fund it has say a hundred stocks in it you know index fund, mutual fund,

00:13

exchange-traded fund or ETF but then there's a fund of funds not just a fund

00:18

of stocks but a fund of funds like if there was a fund of funds that comprise [Computer screens with graphs appear]

00:23

ten funds and each fund had a hundred stocks in it while then that fund of

00:26

funds would be representing the performance of a thousand stocks lots

00:31

and lots of stocks and stocks because Amazon ships a lot of box and box it's [Man wearing Dr Seuss hat discussing amazon boxes]

00:36

from dr. Seuss we got that for no charge notionally a fund of funds appeals to

00:40

investors because well they can grow very large the fund of funds can not the

00:45

investor when they're eating a lot because they're nervous in stock market

00:48

I do that and then directly negotiate with money managers to give what is

00:52

essentially a wholesale volume discount to shareholders of fund to funds thingies

00:57

well if fund of funds comes to a hedge fund that normally charges a 2% management

01:01

fee and takes 20% of profits well if that fund is investing a big chunk of [Lots of cash appears on a table]

01:06

that fund say 50 million bucks well maybe they can negotiate for one and a

01:10

half percent management fee in just 15% carry or something like that well it's

01:14

not always doable but that's the tacit promise of the fund of funds people who

01:19

knock on the doors of the wealthy asking for one percent a year for themselves [Fund of fund manager knocks on door and man opens door]

01:22

for their own management fees on top of what the hedge mutual and while other

01:27

funds want to charge theoretically there could also be a fund to fund to fund of funds

01:31

but that's just a little too inception for us you know so just watch

01:36

the fees if they they add up fund of funds can be fun....

Up Next

Finance: What is an Omnibus Account?
110 Views

An omnibus account is an investment account in which a collection of investors have invested their capital to own a pro rata share of that cooperat...

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)