Fund Managers Leaving: Annual Assessment Or Fuse After 40 People Leave In Two Months

At the beginning of this year, there was a small upsurge of fund managers' resignation.

According to wind data, as of February 28, 2021, 40 fund managers have left their posts in the first two months of this year, involving 34 fund managers.

Among the fund managers who have left, there are many well-known fund managers in the market. Some fund managers have ranked among the top 10% in recent years, but there are many fund managers who have left their posts at the bottom.

"At the beginning of the year, fund managers quit more frequently. On the one hand, it is related to the annual assessment. Fund managers with poor performance may be dismissed. Some fund managers may have better places to go, go private, or transform. On the other hand, in the first two months of this year, the market fluctuated greatly, rising sharply in January and falling sharply in February, which is also a big market leading to personnel turnover The environment. " Yang Delong, chief economist of Qianhai open source fund, said. For many fund companies, how to retain excellent fund managers has become a challenging topic in the fierce industry competition.

Fund manager turnover tide: 40 people leave in two months, annual assessment or fuse. Photo by Gan Jun

40 fund managers leave

According to wind data statistics, as of February 28, 40 fund managers have left their posts since 2021, involving 34 fund companies. Among them, Boshi, Jiashi, Huatai Bairui, Yinhua, TEDA Manulife, Hongde and other fund companies have resigned.

Among the fund managers who left at the beginning of the year, there are many well-known fund managers. For example, Wang Jun, director of fund research at Boshi.

As of February 28, 2021, the Boshi emerging consumption theme fund managed by Wang Jun had a yield of 4% this year, 40% in the latest year, 95% in the last two years and 105% in the last three years. In recent years, its fund performance has been ranked in the top 50%, and its income in the last three years ranked 395 / 2487 among similar funds.

Reporters found that at the beginning of the year, many fund managers who left their jobs performed well. For example, Li Ya, the head of the research department of China Merchants Fund, whose income ranking in the past one year, two years and three years has fluctuated in the top 10 of similar funds.

The industry estimates that a big destination for outgoing fund managers may be peers.

From the perspective of fund managers in various fund companies, many are from the same industry. For example, according to wind data, there are 6 fund managers from the same industry in Yinhua Fund, as well as private equity and securities companies. This may mean that peer mobility is a common choice for leaving fund managers. In fact, the most common job hopping among fund managers is from small and medium-sized fund companies to large fund companies.

In the past two years, the market of A-share market has been relatively good, and some fund managers have gone private. The most famous example is Lin Peng, the fund manager of Dongfang red star, who left the company in May last year.

In addition, due to the rapid development of asset management industry, the demand for fund managers in bank financing subsidiaries, securities companies and other industries is also increasing.

"It's normal for fund managers to leave, some for better income or better positions." Zhang Ting, chief strategist of Ge Shang financial management, said.

However, there are also some fund managers who "leave passively".

The reporter found that many of the fund managers who left the company ranked at the bottom of the annual rankings. For example, there were two bond fund managers who left in January this year. The dingkai pure bond fund they managed ranked in the last 30 of nearly 3000 funds of the same kind in the past year, and the income in the last 20 in the past two years.

An active equity fund manager, who left in February this year, has managed a fund that ranks the bottom 1 / 10 of the market in the past year. Its fund manager's working time is only one year and two months. This may mean that the fund company's appraisal cycle is one year, rather than ideal performance or the reason for its resignation.

Change of assessment mechanism

"If the assessment cycle is one year, fund managers will be under great pressure. If the performance ranking is below 50% of peers, they will be warned. If they are ranked in the last third, they may be eliminated. In addition, the ranking of fund managers is also directly linked to the year-end bonus and the income of fund managers. " Some fund industry insiders told reporters.

It is reported that the current performance appraisal cycle of fund companies is generally 1-3 years.

A number of companies told reporters that the assessment cycle has been changed from one year to three years, and fund managers are relieved that the pressure is not so great by the end of the year, and there is no need to adjust positions to offset performance in order to pursue one year's performance.

"How to retain and attract excellent fund managers is an important topic for fund companies. For example, equity incentive, bonus and salary incentive are adopted to make fund managers have a sense of achievement and gain. " Yang Delong said.

Some people from fund companies said that the company has adopted the concept of "light ranking and heavy income" in the assessment of fund managers and adopted two "532" assessment systems.

One year assessment gives priority to the positive return of fund holders, 50% of which is positive performance return, 30% is beyond the benchmark return, and 20% is performance ranking; the three-year assessment encourages adhering to the concept of long-term investment, moderately diluting the pressure of short-term ranking, 50% of the current year's performance, 30% of the previous year's performance, and 20% of the previous year's performance.

According to the fund company, this reflects the company's assessment requirements for talents, aiming at creating absolute returns for customers, and focusing on long-term performance rather than short-term ranking.

However, the fundamentalists vote with their feet. When the promising fund manager leaves, how should investors choose?

In response, Zhang Ting said: "fund managers have a crucial impact on funds, especially those with active management. Everyone's operating style and ability circle are different. Once the fund manager leaves, the fund may face changes in its investment style. Therefore, if there is a change of fund manager, we need to observe the ability of the new fund manager and the performance of past products. If the performance is weak, we suggest redemption. If there is no historical performance, we also suggest redemption for observation. "

Yang Delong also suggested: "for the foundation people, if the optimistic fund manager leaves, he may have to reconsider whether to continue to hold the fund. It is necessary to examine the historical performance of the new fund manager and whether the investment style is a value investment, and then decide whether to continue to hold the fund, because the manager's resignation has a greater impact on the performance of the fund."

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