Mark Moehlman didn’t waste time before pulling his clients’ money out of Pacific Investment Management Co. after Bill Gross shocked investors with news of his departure.

“We sold out of our positions within the first couple of hours,” said Moehlman, managing director at Newport Beach, California-based Beacon Pointe Wealth Advisors. “Then we fielded calls all afternoon and the evening and through the weekend.”

The money, tens of millions of dollars, ended up in funds managed by TCW Group Inc. and Loomis Sayles & Co. Both firms have competing products that are beating the $222 billion Pimco Total Return Fund this year.

Gross’s departure is opening the door for smaller competitors to break Pimco’s dominance after the world’s biggest bond firm quintupled assets to $2 trillion over the past decade. TCW, Legg Mason Inc. and DoubleLine Capital LP all offer funds that are appealing alternatives to Pimco’s Total Return Fund, which has stumbled amid Gross’s bets and lagged rivals for three of the past four years.

Jeffrey Gundlach’s DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund added about $400 million between Sept. 25 and Sept. 29, and assets at TCW’s Metropolitan West Total Return Bond Fund rose by more than $320 million over the same period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Legg Mason, which owns bond manager Western Asset Management Co., said it’s receiving new money, including into the Western Asset Core Plus Bond Fund.

Money Flowing

“We have seen some money come in already, both on the institutional and retail side,” said Joseph Sullivan, chief executive officer of Legg Mason, which managed about $500 billion in fixed-income assets as of June 30.“It is hard to imagine that anyone who has money at Pimco is not at least having a conversation about what they are going to do.”

Pimco CEO Douglas Hodge said during a conference call that the firm is expecting and is ready for client redemptions. Pimco could see withdrawals of 10 percent to 30 percent, Sanford Bernstein said in a report. Pimco has not disclosed how much money has left the firm since Gross’s departure.

Investors yanked a record $446.5 million from Pimco’s $2.9 billion Total Return ETF after Gross’ departure from the firm on Sept. 26., before slowing redemptions to $98 million on Sept. 29 and $87 million yesterday. The exchange-traded fund follows a similar investment strategy as the Pimco Total Return mutual fund.

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