Pear Tree, a subsidiary of wealth manager US Boston Capital, is up to its well-delineated task. It earns an Average Parent rating.
The firm offers actively managed funds in areas that will diversify a standard portfolio, such as international and small-cap equities. It generally steers clear of fads and has a restrained lineup of six funds—all subadvised and mostly by Polaris Capital Management. Pear Tree manages the operations and selects seasoned subadvisors that reserve capacity for the funds. Although Pear Tree launched a less expensive R6 share class in 2017, high fees remain on many of its offerings.
Fund launches, mergers, and liquidations are rare. In 2023, Pear Tree merged its emerging-markets fund into its International Opportunity fund, citing a shift in how clients access emerging markets exposure. Its most recent addition was Pear Tree Essex Environmental Opportunities, which it acquired from Essex in 2021. The firm hasn't jumped into exchange-traded funds because it specializes in areas where capacity is constrained, and ETFs cannot be closed to new investors.
Pear Tree founders Willard Umphrey and Leon Okurowski remain in place nearly 10 years after hiring John McClellan to run the firm eventually. To be sure, McClellan runs the day-to-day operations; there's no reason to expect significant change when the founders depart.
Note: This share class' Parent Pillar rating is analyst-driven, as its Branding Name, Pear Tree (Branding Name ID: BN00000DHW), is covered by Morningstar Manager Research.
United States