Fidelity, Other Firms Shuffle Managers

Legg Mason, Northern Institutional and Waddell & Reed also make some changes.
By Richard Widows ,

Mutual fund giant Fidelity Management & Research took steps in April to bolster funds with combined net assets of more than $20 billion. Some other fund companies followed suit.

Joanna Bewick joined existing manager Derek Young to become a co-manager of six Fidelity funds that oversee $18.9 billion in net investor assets. Counting multiple investor and institutional classes, the funds -- listed in the accompanying table -- contain 18 individual classes of shares.

Young has been a manager of the funds since Sept. 4.

Also at Fidelity, William W. Irving replaces Brett S. Kozlowski at the

Fidelity Institutional Short-Intermediate Government Fund

(FFXSX) - Get Report

and the

Fidelity Intermediate Government Fund

(FSTGX) - Get Report

. The combined net assets of the two funds total $1.4 billion.

FFXSX rewarded its holders with a total return of 7.4% for the 12 months ended April 30, 2008, while FSTGX has returned 8.6% during the same period. Those returns helped each of the funds earn the highest possible grade of A+ from TheStreet.com Ratings.

Kozlowski had been managing FFXSX and FSTGX since Oct. 2, 2006.

At Legg Mason, Derek J. Deutsch joined Brian M. Angerame as a co-manager of the

Legg Mason Partners Capital Fund

(SCCAX) - Get Report

. The five separate classes of the fund combine for $854.3 million in net assets.

SCCAX's negative return over the past 12 months was a factor in the fund receiving an E+ grade from TheStreet.com Ratings, a mark which equates with a sell recommendation.

Peter J. Flood replaced Colin A. Robertson as manager of the $57.1 million

Northern Institutional Balanced Fund

(BBALX) - Get Report

. The fund, with a return of -3.9% over the latest 12 months and a grade of D+ from TheStreet.com Ratings, requires a minimum initial investment of $5 million.

At the

Waddell & Reed Advisors High Income Fund

(UNHIX)

, William M. Nelson joined Louise D. Rieke as co-manager. The five classes of the fund combine to total $973.1 million in net assets.

Rieke has been a manager of UNHIX since Jan. 1, 1990.

Richard Widows is a senior financial analyst for TheStreet.com Ratings. Prior to joining TheStreet.com, Widows was senior product manager for quantitative analytics at Thomson Financial. After receiving an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University in California, his career included development of investment information systems at data firms, including the Lipper division of Reuters. His international experience includes assignments in the U.K. and East Asia.

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