HEAD-TO-HEAD: Alliance Bernstein vs Columbia Threadneedle

123456

Manager review

Frank Caruso is the lead manager for the AB Fund. He has been managing the fund since 2012, according to Ng. Caruso is also the senior vice president and chief investment officer of US growth equities, a position he has held since 2012. Caruso first joined AB in 1993, and has had various roles such as team leader of US growth and team leader for US growth and income.

Two other co-managers support him – John Fogarty and Vinay Thapar – as well as 11 analysts that cover different sectors in the US equity market.

Nadia Grant is the lead manager for the Threadneedle Fund. She joined the company in 2014 as a portfolio manager within the US equities team and became head of US equities in July 2017. Before joining Threadneedle, she worked for 13 years at JP Morgan Asset Management, where she was a portfolio manager managing European, American and global strategies, Ng said.

Ng was not able to comment on how many analysts are supporting Grant, however.

Ng likes both managers given their experience. However, he said he likes the AB team better because of Caruso’s longer track-record at the firm. He added that Threadneedle’s Grant replaced Cormac Weldon, who left the firm with six analysts who were involved in managing the fund.

“The fund could be different from before, because some of the key members of the investment team changed. So I would rate AB higher in terms of the quality of the team,” he said.

123456