MainStay Investments, the retail distribution arm of New York Life Investments, has an agreement to buy four Epoch mutual funds.

Under the agreement, MainStay will also become the primary distributor of separately managed accounts managed by Epoch, according to MainStay.

The fund acquisition, which is pending shareholder approval, would result in the Epoch Global Equity Shareholder Yield, Epoch International Small Cap, Epoch U.S. All Cap Equity and Epoch U.S. Large Cap Equity funds being reorganized as "MainStay Epoch" funds.

The funds have total assets of more than $750 million. They are managed by Epoch Investment Partners Inc., which was founded in 2004.

"Epoch's investment offerings are complimentary to MainStay's strong large cap equity and fixed income product lineup," said MainStay Funds President Stephen Fisher.