Star manager departures: Should you ditch the fund?

The debate over whether to pull client money following a star manager exit was reignited last week when PIMCO founder Bill Gross quit the group to join rival Janus Capital. Investors who had been fleeing his Total Return Bond fund for the past 18 months picked up the pace, with a record $23.5bn of net outflows in September. Gross' exit is the latest in a long list of recent high profile manager moves. Just last month, for example, Schroders was forced to accept Julie Dean's resignation, while Threadneedle's head of UK equities Simon Brazier announced his departure to join Investec. Br...