American looks to Guardian to help performance

American Funds is getting a hand from Capital Guardian, its institutional money management sibling, as parent company Capital Research and Management Co. looks to boost the fund group's equity performance. Portfolio managers Noriko Chen, Robert Lovelace, William Robbins and Dylan Yolles will begin working with Capital Guardian's research team Sept. 1. “The goal is to help make us the best investment professionals we can be,” spokesman Chuck Freadhoff said. “We're taking advantage of research capabilities we never had before.” The group of four is responsible for various sleeves of the American Funds EuroPacific Growth Fund (AEPGX), American Funds American Mutual Fund (AMRMX), American Funds New Perspective Fund (ANWPX) and American Funds SmallCap World Fund (SMCWX). American Funds' outflow problems — investors have pulled more than $220 billion since June 2008, according to Morningstar Inc. — followed its poor showing coming out of the financial crisis. Its average fund ranked in the category's 45th percentile over the five-year period ended June 30. The recent performance still hasn't dimmed American's long-term record, which spurred it to $1.2 trillion in assets at its peak in 2007. Over the 15-year period through June, the average American fund ranked in the 26th percentile of its category, according to Morningstar. jkephart@investmentnews.com Twitter: @jasonkephart