Fund companies have moved increasingly to team-managed setups or comanagers. The reasons are growing complexity and investor concerns about key-person risk. Thoughtful succession planning can help mitigate that risk, but departures without a clear plan could meaningfully affect the strategy. Let’s explore three funds where key-person risk warrants a closer look.
Portfolio manager Aziz Hamzaogullari has a long history overseeing Loomis Sayles Growth LGRRX, which has a Morningstar Medalist Rating of Silver. He founded the strategy in 2006 at Evergreen Investments before bringing it with him to Loomis Sayles in 2010. Three analysts, who still work on the fund, came with him, and he has since grown the team to eight. Even so, the fund clearly centers around Hamzaogullari and his distinctive seven-step research method, leaving it exposed to key-person risk. The three long-standing analysts could be seen as reasonable deputies, though they hold limited records in public portfolio management.
Regardless, conviction in Hamzaogullari and his time-tested approach underpins the fund’s High People and Process Pillar ratings, and performance has been solid. Since June 2010, the first full month after he joined Loomis Sayles, the fund’s 16.0% annualized return through April 2026 eclipsed 77% of large-growth Morningstar Category peers but trailed the Russell 1000 Growth Index benchmark’s 16.9% gain.
Neutral-rated BlackRock Technology Opportunities BGSAX benefits from lead manager Tony Kim’s industry expertise. He began his career in engineering before moving into investment banking and eventually equity research, specializing in tech stocks. Kim joined BlackRock in 2013 and has led this fund since then, using his industry knowledge to build a database of more than 1,200 companies. Rather than anchoring the portfolio to a traditional benchmark, Kim treats this database as the fund’s investable universe, setting the strategy apart from many peers.
One comanager and six analysts support Kim, illustrating his preference for more compact teams. Even with that support, the strategy remains closely tied to Kim’s distinct approach and industry insight, underpinning its key-person risk. Kim has overseen good results compared with peers, beating 65% of the technology category since June 2013 but trailing the Morningstar US Technology Index benchmark by over 100 basis points.
Fidelity Real Estate Income FRIFX, which earns a Silver rating, distinguishes itself from many traditional real estate strategies that focus primarily on real estate stocks by investing in preferred stocks, real estate bonds, and commercial mortgage-backed securities.
Sole portfolio manager Bill Maclay joined the firm as a commercial mortgage analyst in 2001, started working on this fund when it launched in 2003, and assumed the lead manager position in mid-2021. His long association with this fund and experience as a commercial mortgage analyst make him uniquely qualified to steer this distinct, multi-asset real estate approach. Fidelity’s deep teams specializing in real estate debt, commercial mortgages, and real estate stocks support Maclay, but he lacks a clear successor, highlighting the fund’s reliance on him as sole decision-maker.
The strategy’s unique construction means it doesn’t fit neatly into a single peer group. The fund’s custom benchmark, which includes 25% real estate preferred stocks, 15% CMBS, 20% real estate common stock, and 40% real estate corporate bonds, provides the best measure. Over the trailing five-year period, the fund’s 4.0% annualized return outpaced the bogy’s 1.9%.
This article first appeared in the May 2026 issue of Morningstar FundInvestor. Download a complimentary copy of FundInvestor by visiting this website.
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