Even as investors line up to file arbitration claims against Morgan Keegan relating to the sales and performance of several of their proprietary funds, two of their much maligned bond funds top the list of worst-performing bond funds for the January 2008.
RMK Select Intermediate Bond (RIBIX) and RMK Select High Income (RHIIX) saw total returns in January of -17.3% and -11.3% respectively.
As of December 31, 2007, these two funds had total combined assets of $145.2 million.
As this poor performance continues, it can be expected that more and more investors will file arbitration claims seeking recovery of their losses. The key focus in many of these claims will be on what disclosures were made (or not made) to investors who were sold these funds. Additionally, many claims already on file have claimed that these funds were pitched and sold as very safe, conservative investments not dissimilar from CDs. Clearly these investments cannot be compared to CDs or any other generally regarded safe, income producing investment.