MSSFX — Litman Gregory Masters Smaller Companies Fund
Data updated: 2020-11-27
MSSFX — Litman Gregory Masters Smaller Companies Fund. Emerging Markets Small Cap Blend / Core Equity. Holdings, fees, performance and SEC filings.
MSSFX Fund Overview
MSSFX — Litman Gregory Masters Smaller Companies Fund is a US mutual fund managed by iM Global Partner Funds, categorised as Emerging Markets Small Cap Blend / Core Equity. ABC INVEST provides holdings, performance, costs, cashflows, risk data, prospectus documents and SEC filings, sourced from SEC filings.
- Type: US mutual fund
- Manager: iM Global Partner Funds
- Category: Emerging Markets Small Cap Blend / Core Equity
- Assets under management: $18.36M
- 1-year return: -8.8%
- Ticker: MSSFX
- SEC CIK: 0001020425
- SEC series ID: S000005596
- Share class ID: C000015263
MSSFX Investment Objective and Strategy
Litman Gregory Masters Smaller Companies Fund describes its objective and strategy as follows, from its latest prospectus filed with the SEC by iM Global Partner Funds.
Investment objective
The Litman Gregory Masters Smaller Companies Fund (the “Smaller Companies Fund”) seeks long-term growth of capital; that is, the increase in the value of your investment over the long term.
Principal investment strategy
Litman Gregory Fund Advisors, LLC, the advisor to the Smaller Companies Fund, believes that it is possible to identify investment managers who, over a market cycle, will deliver superior returns relative to their peer groups. Litman Gregory also believes it can identify skilled stock pickers who, within their more diversified portfolios, have higher confidence in the return potential of some stocks than others. Litman Gregory believes a portfolio comprised only of these managers higher confidence stocks should outperform their more diversified portfolios over a market cycle. Based on these beliefs, the Smaller Companies Funds strategy is to engage a number of proven managers as sub-advisors (each a manager or sub-advisor), with each manager investing in the securities of smaller companies that it believes have strong appreciation potential.
Under normal conditions, each sub-advisor manages a portion of the Smaller Companies Funds assets by independently managing a portfolio typically composed of between 8 and 15 stocks. There is no minimum or maximum allocation of the Funds portfolio assets to each sub-advisor. Under normal market conditions, the Smaller Companies Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes, in securities of small- and mid-sized U.S. companies. The managers have limited flexibility to invest in the securities of foreign companies, including emerging markets (up to 15% of the Smaller Companies Funds net assets may be invested in foreign securities). By executing this strategy, the Smaller Companies Fund seeks to: combine the efforts of several experienced, high quality managers; access the favorite stock-picking ideas of each manager at any point in time; deliver a portfolio that is prudently diversified in terms of stocks (typically 24 to 45) and industries while still allowing each manager to run portfolio segments focused on only his favorite stocks; and further diversify across stock-picking styles by including managers with a variety of stock-picking disciplines.
Litman Gregory defines a smaller company as one whose market capitalization falls below the market capitalization of the largest company in the Russell 2500 Index, which, as of March 31, 2018, was $20.3 billion. The Russell 2500 Index measures the performance of 2,500 small- and mid-sized companies with market capitalizations averaging $5.4 billion as of March 31, 2018. Generally, Litman Gregory believes the majority of the Smaller Companies Funds holdings will typically fall within the range of the Russell 2000 Index, but the Smaller Companies Fund has the flexibility to hold mid-sized companies if the managers believe that holding these companies will lead to higher overall returns. As of March 31, 2018, the largest company in the Russell 2000 Index had a market capitalization of $16.7 billion.
Generally, a security may be sold: (1) if the manager believes the securitys market price exceeds the managers estimate of intrinsic value; (2) if the managers view of the business fundamentals or management of the underlying company changes; (3) if a more attractive investment opportunity is found; (4) if general market conditions trigger a change in the managers assessment criteria; or (5) for other portfolio management reasons. The Smaller Companies Funds investment managers may trade its portfolio frequently.
MSSFX Performance
Total returns for MSSFX (as of 2026-10-01), from SEC filings.
| Period | Total return |
|---|---|
| 1 year | -8.8% |
MSSFX Risk Information
Risk metrics for MSSFX, derived from monthly returns in SEC filings.
- 1-year volatility (annualised): 36.1%
MSSFX Costs and Fees
MSSFX costs about $146 per $10,000 invested per year in fund expenses.
- Net expense ratio: 1.46%
- Gross expense ratio: 1.88%
- Portfolio turnover: 65%
- Brokerage commissions: 14.73 bps of average net assets (SEC N-CEN)
MSSFX Cashflows
Over the 12 months to 2020-09, Litman Gregory Masters Smaller Companies Fund had net outflows of $4.48M, from monthly SEC N-PORT filings.
| Month | Net flow |
|---|---|
| 2020-09 | −$337.14K |
| 2020-08 | −$587.41K |
| 2020-07 | −$795.94K |
| 2020-06 | −$796.50K |
| 2020-05 | −$1.37M |
| 2020-04 | −$323.66K |
MSSFX Debt Constituents
No individual debt constituents are reported in Litman Gregory Masters Smaller Companies Fund's latest SEC N-PORT filing.
MSSFX Prospectus and SEC Filings
Official Litman Gregory Masters Smaller Companies Fund filings on SEC EDGAR — prospectus, portfolio holdings and annual reports.
- Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2020-05-13
- Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2019-05-13
- Prospectus supplement (497) — filed 2018-05-18
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2020-11-27
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2020-08-28
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2020-05-29
- Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2020-03-10
- Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2019-03-14
Related Funds
Other Emerging Markets Small Cap Blend / Core Equity funds tracked on ABC INVEST:
Data Sources
ABC INVEST compiles this page from public filings made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through EDGAR: portfolio holdings and monthly cashflows from Form N-PORT, expenses and returns from fund prospectuses (Form 485BPOS) and the SEC DERA Risk/Return Summary data sets, annual data from Form N-CEN, and shareholder reports from Form N-CSR.