Evergreen Investments was the investment management

Investment management

Investment management is the professional management of various securities and assets in order to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of the investors...

 business of Wachovia

Wachovia

Wachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States based on total assets...

. The brand was merged into Wells Fargo Advantage Funds and subsequently phased out following Wells Fargo's

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational diversified financial services company with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by assets and the largest bank by market capitalization. Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in deposits, home...

 acquisition of Wachovia. The brand was officially retired on July 20, 2010.

Outside of the United States, the sales and distribution business was conducted under the brand name of Wachovia Global Asset Management.

Evergreen Investments had US$245.9 billion in assets under management

Assets under management

Assets under management is a financial term used denote the market value of funds being managed by a financial instutition on behalf of its clients, investors, depositors, etc. This metric is a sign of size and success against competition...

, 83 mutual funds, 2.7 million mutual fund shareholders and 1,064 employees as of June 30, 2008. Evergreen ranked among America's 30 largest asset management companies and one of the top 25 largest mutual fund families.

This mutual fund family promoted itself as a "broadly diversified asset management organization, with products and services distributed across several lines of business...managing diverse investments such as institutional portfolios, mutual funds, variable annuities, alternative investments and private accounts."

Corporate history

Evergreen Investments traced its history to the brand name of Keystone Investments, which was first founded in 1932.

Keystone Investments: 1932-1996

Keystone Investments created one of the first mutual fund families in 1932. It was employee-owned and operated until its merger with, First Union owned, Evergreen Funds. Keystone offered more than 25 retail mutual funds.

Keystone-Evergreen Merger: 1996-1998

First Union Corporation, the parent company of the legacy Evergreen Funds, acquired the Keystone Fund Family and began the Evergreen-Keystone merger in 1996. The merger brought together the strengths of two industry leaders and by 1997 the Evergreen and Keystone funds were integrated under the surviving Evergreen brand name that would offer over 80 retail and institutional mutual funds.

The full merger was completed by January 1998. In that same year Evergreen Funds begins to operate with two sub divisions: the Retail Company and the Institutional Company.

Tattersall Advisory Group

In 1999, Evergreen acquired the Tattersall Advisory Group (TAG), an investment advisory firm specializing in fixed income management, as wholly owned, freestanding subsidiary of Evergreen Funds

First Union – Wachovia, Merger of Equals

On August 3, 2001, legacy Wachovia Corporation shareholders approved a "merger of equals" deal with Evergreen Fund's umbrella company, First Union Corporation, to create the new Wachovia Corporation, of which Evergreen remains a subsidiary. The new entity shed the name of First Union and assumed the Wachovia identity and stock ticker. Analysts said this move was most likely to help First Union acquire a new identity, as Wachovia's reputation was far better with consumers than First Union.

Due to the "merger of equals" Evergreen Funds and the legacy Wachovia mutual funds were merged to form and operate as the current existing Evergreen Funds.

Evergreen Investments

In 2002 Evergreen Retail and Institutional companies form and begin to operate under the umbrella asset management organization named Evergreen Investment Management Company, LLC. Evergreen mutual funds are now distributed by Evergreen Investment Services, Inc. and Evergreen Service Company, LLC is the transfer agent

Transfer agent

Public companies typically use transfer agents to keep track of the individuals and entities that own their stocks and bonds. Most transfer agents are banks or trust companies, but sometimes a company acts as its own transfer agent....

 for the Evergreen Funds. Evergreen Fund Information http://www1.evergreeninvestments.com/eicom/pub/fundinfo.go

OFFIT, a separate subsidiary of the legacy Wachovia, acquired in 1999, becomes Evergreen OFFIT.

Relationship with Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo

In 2003, Evergreen formed a relationship with Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co., LLC (GMO) to launch an asset allocation fund of funds. This presents investors with an opportunity to invest in an Evergreen product with underlying GMO institutional funds.

Key milestones since 2003

2006 was marked by:

- The acquisition of a majority interest in Metropolitan West Capital Management, LLC, an asset management firm noted for its intrinsic value strategies.

- Evergreen also launches Wachovia Global Asset Management, the brand name under which Evergreen sells and distributes investment products outside the United States.

- Due to Wachovia Corporation’s May 2006 acquisition of Golden West Financial, a proposal was submitted to merge Golden West’s Atlas mutual funds with corresponding Evergreen Funds.

2007 was marked by:

- The Atlas funds were successfully merged to corresponding Evergreen Funds by the end of May 2007.

- Evergreen acquires majority interest in European Credit Management Limited (ECM), a London-based provider of European credit absolute return solutions.

- SEC announced settlement with Evergreen investments over market timing violations.

Market timing violations

On September 19, 2007, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission

United States Securities and Exchange Commission

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is a federal agency which holds primary responsibility for enforcing the federal securities laws and regulating the securities industry, the nation's stock and options exchanges, and other electronic securities markets in the United States...

(SEC) announced that Evergreen Investments and affiliates would pay $32.5 million to settle market timing violations. Evergreen allowed some of its shareholders to market time trades, in violation of Evergreen's prospectus. William M. Ennis, a former officer of Evergreen paid $1 in disgorgement plus a civil penalty of $150,000.