The Capital Group, which includes American Funds, plans to restructure its equity investment group and offer two new investments.

“It was clear to us that we were not as easy to do business with, the way we were organized internally, as our clients would like us to be,” said Kevin Clifford, president and CEO of American Funds Distributors and a member of the Capital Group management committee.

Capital’s investment group had been organized around the types of clients that it served. The American Funds group managed Capital Group's retail mutual funds and a separate group managed money for its institutional clients.

“The new structure will divide the investment group not around products or clients, but rather around specific investment objectives,” stated Clifford.

The investment group will be divided into three independent equity divisions, Capital World Investors, Capital Research Global Investors and Capital International Investors. Each division will have the flexibility to manage any of the investment objectives or any of the investment vehicles the Capital Group offers. The same applies to the fixed-income group.

The firm also announced it has introduced separately managed accounts for the retail market. For institutions, Capital Group has created a family of collective investment trusts for the large and mega 401(k) plan marketplace.

This will give the Capital Group the ability to deliver investment management in mutual funds, separately managed accounts and subaccounts inside a variable annuities for institutions or individuals, Clifford said.

The firm now plans to use only two names: American Funds Group and Capital Group. No longer will Capital Research and Management, Capital International, Capital Guardian or Capital Bank and Trust be used.