Once Guardian Life Insurance Company of America‘s deal to purchase a 65% stake in RS Investments is complete, the insurance company will use the RS brand for all its mutual funds. RS is a privately-held mutual fund company in San Francisco specializing in growth and value investments for retail and institutional. RS will operate as an independent subsidiary.
According to Morningstar the Guardian Park Avenue Mutual Funds family is a mediocre fund family, with no standouts. Its flagship Guardian Park Avenue Fund, for example, has gone through major management changes in recent years after a string of underperformance. Darlene DeRemer, co-founder of Grail Partners, said, “The old Guardian proprietary investment capabilities weren’t necessarily the right quality. This is a reverse merger.” Guardian has said there will be no changes to the RS investments team. The combination will raise RS’s assets to more than $17 billion from about $11.8 billion.