The Dreyfus Corporation is one of the world’s leading financial and mutual fund companies that is currently headquartered in New York City. They have been recognized as one of the investment industry leaders and were the first firm of its type to advertise their products and services to the consumer. Additionally, they were also the first financial corporation to develop a high-yield fund.
In 1994, Dreyfus Corporation merged with Mellon Financial and is now one of the Bank of New York Mellon’s subsidiaries. Dreyfus Corporation had over $280 billion in managed assets as of mid-2009 and currently administers approximately 200 different mutual funds. The company has over 1,400 employees. BNY Mellon Asset Management is listed as the actual parent company of the Dreyfus Corporation.
Brief History of Dreyfus
The Dreyfus Corporation was founded in 1951 by Jack Dreyfus, a legendary investor who had opened his brokerage house – Dreyfus & Co. – in 1947, considered to be the year of the company’s origin. During the 1950’s, Dreyfus’ interest in mutual funds propelled him to hire John G. Nesbett & Co., Inc., a small company that was quite active in the area of asset and mutual fund management.
The company went public in 1965 and was one of the first management firms to actually tap into the stock market in order to gain additional operating capital. In 1976, the Dreyfus Corporation was one of the first mutual fund companies to introduce municipal bond funds that were tax-exempt, a rather revolutionary concept at the time. As of July of 2007, the company had passed the $200 billion mark in managed assets.
Dreyfus products and services
In additional to their vast line of mutual funds, the Dreyfus Corporation also offers other products and services including the following:
- annuities
- brokerage services
- IRA’s (individual retirement accounts)
- separate accounts
However, it is their line of fund products that has made the company one of the larger mutual fund companies in the world. They have categorized their mutual fund listings as either Dreyfus Funds (bond and equity funds) or Money Market Funds (general and retail funds), including the types of funds offered in each category:
Bond Funds – short, intermediate, and long-term maturity bonds
Equity Funds– small, mid, and large capitalization funds
General Funds – municipal (or tax-exempt) and taxable funds
Retail Fund – municipal (or tax-exempt) and taxable funds
According to Morningstar Research, a firm that focuses on mutual fund and stock performance as well as opinions on when to purchase or sell, they have listed the Dreyfus Corporation’s top 5 mutual funds as follows:
- Dreyfus Opportunistic Small Cap
- Dreyfus Greater China A
- Dreyfus/Standish Global Fixed Income I
- Dreyfus Mid-cap Value A
- Dreyfus/Standish International Fixed-Income I
If you are considering adding mutual funds to your portfolio, any of these above are rated as a wise choice. However, if there are other funds that are listed in the four groups above these 5, then you should probably contact the Dreyfus Corporation for more information regarding the different choices.