Alabama State Treasury dropped the PIMCO Total Return Fund as an investment option in the $1.23 billion CollegeCounts 529 plan, Montgomery.
The option was dropped Sept. 30; the $103 million in assets were moved to the Vanguard Total Bond Market Index fund and the Northern Funds Bond Index fund, said Young Boozer, Alabama state treasurer.
The Vanguard Group fund and Northern fund, managed by Northern Trust Asset Management, are existing options in the overall 529 plan.
Mr. Boozer said Pacific Investment Management Co. had been under review since the departure of former PIMCO CEO and co-chief investment officer Mohamed El-Erian in early 2013. “We’ve been monitoring them for a while, mostly for management reasons,” Mr. Boozer said. “When (former CIO Bill) Gross left, we left.”
The plan now has 24 investment options along with a suite of six target-date funds and three age-based portfolios. Union Bank & Trust is the plan’s record keeper.
