Capital Research and Management Co., adviser of the American Funds, has undergone an internal restructuring that divides the organization into two units. All of the funds still have the same adviser—the reorganization is only an internal division of resources and personnel. "The independent directors of the fund boards have participated for the past two years in the ongoing discussions of this organization shift, and are fully supportive of it," said Henry Riggs, an independent director.
 
The two groups were created because of the large size of the fund complex to keep it operating effectively and allow for more exchanges of ideas and discussion which can be hard with large groups, a spokesman said. The groups are not divided up by type of investment or other factor. "We tried to make sure there was a balance among the funds and among the investment professionals," he said. Some funds had portfolio manager changes as a result of the reorganization and some are co-managed by both groups.
 
The American Funds complex has 11 cluster boards. A spokesman said this should not impact the boards during 15(c) time because the advisory contract is with the overall company—Capital Research and Management. Still, during the 15c process the board needs to understand in fairly great detail exactly how the investment process works and how it's changed year-after-year, said Jeff Keil, principal of Keil Fiduciary Strategies.  "If there is a very clear segmentation where it was centralized previously it can't help but have some kind of impact on the personnel that are contributing to each of the mutual funds."