Amana Mutual Funds Trust

Last updated

Amana Mutual Funds Trust (Ticker symbols: AMANX, AMAGX, and AMDWX), headquartered in Bellingham, Washington, is a mutual fund company offering investment products consistent with Islamic banking principles. [1] [2]

Contents

Founding principles

The Amana Income Fund, founded by Unified Management Corporation, Indianapolis, IN, in 1986, was the Trust's first fund. The Amana Growth Fund was created in 1994. The Amana Developing World Fund was created in 2009. All three funds are managed according to Islamic principles.

Traditional mutual funds are off-limits to Muslims, because they typically contain securities that are forbidden by sharia law. Accordingly, the Amana Funds are managed under strict guidelines to comply with Islamic principles. Examples of forbidden (haram) investments are companies that:

  • Produce or sell alcohol, tobacco or pornography
  • Process or sell pork products
  • Generate revenue from gambling or interest (riba)
  • Maintain a debt ratio of greater than one-third of assets [1]

The funds were created and are still managed under the value investment style. Nicholas Kaiser has been portfolio manager of the funds since 1990. Scott Klimo is the deputy portfolio manager of the funds. [2]

The Amana Funds are unique in that they were specifically conceived to meet the needs of Muslim investors. One of the reasons Muslims are motivated to save and invest is to make financial preparations necessary to make the Hajj , a sacred form of a self-presentation before God (Allah in Arabic) that is considered within Islam to be one of life's primary duties. In order to make the Hajj, a Muslim must first get his financial house in order, which presents special challenges if the money is to be invested in compliance Shari'ah -oriented financial principles. According to Amana's founding chairman Dr. M. Yaqub Mirza,

In order to make the Hajj, Muslims must first pay off their debts, including the zakat due on their wealth; to return whatever was given them in trust; and have enough savings to bear the expenses of the journey (such as travel, Hajj tax, and lodging) and the sacrifice (of an animal). Besides this, they also have to provide for their families and dependents during their absence. They must have earned and saved enough to cover these expenses. No Hajj is valid if it is performed "on credit." [3]

Performance

Performance of the Amana Funds is best evaluated by consulting a variety of sources. The ticker symbols for the funds are:

Organization and structure

Saturna Capital Corporation is the investment adviser and administrator of the Amana Mutual Funds Trust and the Saturna Investment Trust. Saturna Capital Corporation, established in 1989, is administrator to $3.8 billion in assets under management as of September 2012. [4]

Saturna Sdn. Bhd., located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Saturna Capital Corporation. [5]

Saturna Brokerage Services is the distributor of the Amana Funds Trust and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Saturna Capital Corporation. [6]

Saturna Trust Company, headquartered in Reno, NV is a wholly owned subsidiary of Saturna Capital Corporation. [7]

Board of Trustees and Officers

Independent Trustees: [8]

  • Talat M. Othman, Chairman (since 2001)
  • Iqbal Unus, Ph.D. (since 1989)
  • Miles Davis, Ph.D. (since 2008)
  • M. Yaqub Mirza, Ph.D. (since 2009, also 1987 to 2003)
  • Ronald H. Fielding, MA, MBA, CFA (since 2012)

Interested Trustee:

  • Nicholas F. Kaiser, CFA, Trustee (since 1989)

Officers who are not trustees: [9]

  • Jane Carten, MBA, Vice President (since 2012)
  • Christopher R. Fankhauser, Treasurer (since 2002)
  • Ethel B. Bartholome, Secretary (since 2003)

History

The concept for the Amana Funds emerged in 1984 when two members of the North American Islamic Trust, Yaqub Mirza and Bassam Osman, presented the idea of a mutual fund for Muslim investors to Nicholas Kaiser, who was then portfolio manager of multiple mutual funds at Unified Management Corporation, based in Indianapolis, Indiana. [10] [11]

Portfolio Managers

The Amana Funds' portfolios have been managed since 1989 by Nicholas Kaiser, MBA, CFA, (Chairman and controlling shareowner of the Amana Funds’ Adviser, Saturna Capital Corporation). Mr. Kaiser founded Saturna Capital in 1989 after selling his controlling interest in Unified Management Corporation. His educational background includes an economics degree from Yale College and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago (1968) with dual majors in economics and finance. Scott Klimo, CFA, has been the deputy portfolio manager of the Amana Funds since 2012. [12] Mr. Klimo joined Saturna Capital, adviser to the Amana Funds, as director of research in 2012. He holds a BA in Asian Studies from Hamilton College, Clinton, NY, and attended the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Mandarin Training Center, Taipei, Taiwan.

Alumni

Amana's past board membership has included the following interesting individuals: [13]

Related Research Articles

Passive management is an investing strategy that tracks a market-weighted index or portfolio. Passive management is most common on the equity market, where index funds track a stock market index, but it is becoming more common in other investment types, including bonds, commodities and hedge funds.

Fidelity Investments Inc., commonly referred to as Fidelity, earlier as Fidelity Management & Research or FMR, is an American multinational financial services corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in 1946 and is one of the largest asset managers in the world with $4.9 trillion in assets under management as of June 2020 and a combined total customer asset value number of $8.3 trillion. Fidelity Investments operates a brokerage firm, manages a large family of mutual funds, provides fund distribution and investment advice, retirement services, index funds, wealth management, cryptocurrency, securities execution and clearance, asset custody, and life insurance.

Canadian Securities Institute Canadian organization

The Canadian Securities Institute is a Canadian organization that offers licensing courses, advanced certifications, continuing education and custom training for financial services professionals in Canada and internationally.

Talat M. Othman is a Palestinian-American businessman and investor. He is the president of Grove Financial, Inc. and the founding president of the Arab-American Business and Professional Association. In 1973, he founded the Midwest Chapter of the Forex Association of North America. He serves as senior advisor of McKinley Reserve. On July 31, 2000, he opened the Republican National Convention session with a dua'a – or Muslim benediction – marking the first time a Muslim had addressed a major US political gathering. Illinois governor Jim Edgar proclaimed Nov 1, 1997 Haj Talat M. Othman day in Illinois. On April 4, 2002, Othman joined Islamic Institute head Khaled Saffuri in a meeting with Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill as representatives of the Muslim-American community, to voice complaints about the March 20 raid on the International Institute of Islamic Thought and 19 related entities.

Value Line, Inc. is an independent investment research and financial publishing firm based in New York City, New York, United States, founded in 1931 by Arnold Bernhard. Value Line is best known for publishing The Value Line Investment Survey, a stock analysis newsletter that is among the most highly regarded and widely used independent investment research resources in global investment and trading markets, tracking approximately 1,700 publicly traded stocks in over 99 industries.

Capital Group Companies American financial services company

Capital Group is an American financial services company. It ranks among the world's oldest and largest investment management organizations, with over $2.6 trillion in assets under management. Founded in Los Angeles, California in 1931, it is privately held and has offices around the globe in the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe.

A "fund of funds" (FOF) is an investment strategy of holding a portfolio of other investment funds rather than investing directly in stocks, bonds or other securities. This type of investing is often referred to as multi-manager investment. A fund of funds may be "fettered", meaning that it invests only in funds managed by the same investment company, or "unfettered", meaning that it can invest in external funds run by other managers.

A unit trust is a form of collective investment constituted under a trust deed. A unit trust pools investors' money into a single fund, which is managed by a fund manager. Unit trusts offer access to a wide range of investments, and depending on the trust, it may invest in securities such as shares, bonds, gilts, and also properties, mortgage and cash equivalents. Those investing in the trust own "units" whose price is called the "net asset value" (NAV). The number of these units is not fixed and when more is invested in a unit trust, more units are created.

In U.S. financial law, a unit investment trust (UIT) is an exchange-traded mutual fund offering a fixed (unmanaged) portfolio of securities having a definite life. Unlike open-end and closed-end investment companies, a UIT has no board of directors. A UIT is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and is classified as an investment company. UITs are assembled by a sponsor and sold through brokerage firms to investors.

M. Yaqub Mirza is a Herndon, Virginia-based businessman and Islamic activist.

Target date fund

A target date fund (TDF) – also known as a lifecycle, dynamic-risk or age-based fund – is a collective investment scheme, often a mutual fund or a collective trust fund, designed to provide a simple investment solution through a portfolio whose asset allocation mix becomes more conservative as the target date approaches.

Mackenzie Investments was founded in 1967 and is one of Canada’s largest investment management firms by assets under management. Mackenzie Investments provides investment advisory and related services for retail and institutional clients. With $201.1 billion in assets under management, Mackenzie Investments distributes its services through a diversified network of third-party financial advisors. Mackenzie Investments is a member of the IGM Financial Inc. group of companies. IGM Financial is one of Canada's largest financial services companies by assets with over $262 billion in total assets under management.

Gary P. Brinson is a former investor and money manager. He is the founder of Brinson Partners a Chicago-based asset management firm acquired in 1994 by Swiss Bank Corporation, the predecessor of UBS. Prior to retiring in 2000, Brinson would run the asset management division of Swiss Bank Corporation and later UBS Global Asset Management.

GBC Asset Management is a division of Pembroke Management Ltd., a privately held Canadian investment management firm that manages investment portfolios and separately managed accounts for Canadian pension funds, foundations, endowments, wealthy families and individuals, in addition to the GBC family of mutual funds. Since Pembroke's founding in 1968, the portfolio management team has applied fundamental analysis and conducted ongoing executive level interviews in order to identify high quality companies with compelling growth prospects, unrecognized intrinsic value and strong entrepreneurial leadership.

Investment fund Way of investing money alongside other investors

An investment fund is a way of investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group such as reducing the risks of the investment by a significant percentage. These advantages include an ability to:

Pembroke Management Ltd. is a privately held Canadian investment management firm that manages investment portfolios and separately managed accounts for Canadian pension funds, foundations, endowments, wealthy families and individuals, in addition to the GBC family of mutual funds. Since Pembroke's founding in 1968, the portfolio management team has applied fundamental analysis and conducted ongoing executive level interviews in order to identify high quality companies with compelling growth prospects, unrecognized intrinsic value and strong entrepreneurial leadership.

Pembroke Private Wealth Management is a division of Pembroke Management Ltd., a privately held Canadian investment management firm that manages Pooled Funds and Separately Managed Accounts for Canadian pension funds, foundations, endowments, wealthy families and individuals, in addition to the GBC family of Mutual Funds. Since Pembroke's founding in 1968, the portfolio management team has applied fundamental analysis and conducted ongoing executive level interviews to attempt to identify high quality companies with compelling growth prospects, unrecognized intrinsic value, and strong entrepreneurial leadership.

Investment outsourcing is the process whereby institutional investors and high-net-worth families engage a third party to manage all or a portion of their investment portfolio. This arrangement can include functions such as establishing the asset allocation, selecting investment managers, implementing portfolio decisions, providing on-going oversight, performing risk management and other areas of portfolio management.

Talal Yassine is a Lebanese Australian entrepreneur, lawyer, and philanthropist. He is the founder and managing director of Crescent Wealth, Australia's first Islamic wealth management company, that launched the country's first Islamic superannuation fund, the Crescent Wealth Superannuation Fund, and the country's first Islamic equities index, the Thomson Reuters Crescent Wealth Islamic Australia index.

References

  1. 1 2 Kathman, David. “Heavenly Returns.” Morningstar Advisor February/March 2009: 48-50.
  2. 1 2 http://www.amanafunds.com. http://www.amanafunds.com/adviser/portfolio/manager.shtml. September 19, 2012.
  3. ↑ M. Yaqub Mirza, Early Bird Financial Planning
  4. ↑ Globe Newswire “Saturna Capital Expands Global Investment and Research Team.” NBCNews.com. September 11, 2012.
  5. ↑ http://www.saturna.com.my. Saturna Sdn. Bhd. http://www.saturna.com.my/about.shtml Archived 2010-09-06 at the Wayback Machine . September 14, 2010.
  6. ↑ http://www.saturna.com/sbs Archived 2010-02-26 at the Wayback Machine . Saturna Brokerage Services. http://www.saturna.com/sbs/history.shtml Archived 2010-10-25 at the Wayback Machine . September 14, 2010.
  7. ↑ http://www.saturnatrust.com. The Saturna Trust Company. http://www.saturnatrust.com/about.shtml. August 7, 2009.
  8. ↑ http://www.amanafunds.com. Amana Trust Management. http://www.amanafunds.com/retail/about/management.shtml. September 19, 2012.
  9. ↑ http://www.amanafunds.com. Amana Trust Management. http://www.amanafunds.com/n1a/2012/sai/sai.htm#managementsai. September 19, 2012.
  10. ↑ http://www.amanafunds.com/retail/about. Amana Mutual Funds Trust. http://www.amanafunds.com/retail/about/index.shtml. February 8, 2010.
  11. ↑ Bullock, Nicole. “The Path of the Profit.” Smart Money February 2007: 70-73.
  12. ↑ http://www.amanafunds.com. Amana Portfolio Managers. http://www.amanafunds.com/adviser/portfolio/manager.shtml. September 19, 2012.
  13. ↑ SEC PRES14A filing, 6/14/2001
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.