Will Change In Fund Name Lead To Change In Fortune?

Morgan Stanley reportedly is planning to change the name of its Morgan Stanley Information Fund to the Morgan Stanley Technology Fund. While changing fund names is common, in this case, Morgan Stanley is switching back to an earlier appellation. The Wall Street Journal reports that three years ago, MS merged the then-called Tech Fund into the Information Fund because of poor performance of the former. Now, with a new name, the Journal is speculating that the investment bank is embarking on a new investment strategy that, according to the fund’s prospectus, will invest in companies that “rely extensively on technology, science and communications in their product development or operations at the time of investment.” The Journal also suggests that despite the fund’s historically lackluster performance, investors may give the fund a new look as tech funds have performed well in the past three years. Morgan Stanley would not comment on the name change.