Fund Evaluator:

1290 Essex Small Cap Growth R Overview

1290 Essex Small Cap Growth R (ESCKX) is an actively managed U.S. Equity Small Growth fund. 1290 Funds launched the fund in 2022.

The investment seeks long-term growth of capital. Under normal circumstances, the fund invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus borrowings for investment purposes, in equity securities of small- and micro-capitalization companies. For the fund, a company is considered to be a “small-capitalization” company if, at the time of purchase, its market capitalization is less than or equal to the market capitalization of the largest company included within the Russell 2000® Growth Index.

About 1290 Essex Small Cap Growth R (ESCKX)

There are 5 members of the management team with an average tenure of 1.77 years: Kenneth Kozlowski (2022), Xavier Poutas (2026), Nancy Prial (2022), Miao Hu (2026), Kevin McCarthy (2026). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: Russell 3000 TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and Russell 2000 Growth TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. 1290 Essex Small Cap Growth R has 104 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 22.7% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

1290 Essex Small Cap Growth R is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the U.S. Equity fund group. 1290 Essex Small Cap Growth R has 6.8% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 91.1%. There is 6.8% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 0.0% (0.0% domestic bond, 0.0% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). 1290 Essex Small Cap Growth R has 2.1% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $381 million in total assets, which is below the $431 million average for the Small Growth category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

ESCKX Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The 1290 Essex Small Cap Growth R expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Small Growth category. 1290 Essex Small Cap Growth R has an expense ratio of 1.38%, which is 17% higher than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a D. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. 1290 Essex Small Cap Growth R has a portfolio turnover rate of 55%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 78% for the Small Growth category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, 1290 Essex Small Cap Growth R returned -9.4%, which earned it a grade of D, as the Small Growth category had an average return of -6.7%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all funds in that category.

1290 Essex Small Cap Growth R has a trailing yield of 0.00%, which is below the 0.06% category average. The fund normally distributes its income annually and its capital gains annually.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

1290 Essex Small Cap Growth R Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 12.3%, 1.4 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of D. The fund has returned 32.2% over the past year (grade of B) and 18.8% over the past three years (grade of A).

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