Fund Evaluator:

Virtus Westchester Event-Driven Fd I Overview

Virtus Westchester Event-Driven Fd I (WCEIX) is an actively managed Alternative Event Driven fund. Virtus launched the fund in 2014.

The investment seeks to provide attractive risk-adjusted returns with low relative volatility in virtually all market environments. The fund adviser primarily employs investment strategies designed to capture price movements generated by specific events, including, but not limited to, equity and/or debt securities of companies involved in mergers, acquisitions, asset sales or other divestitures, restructurings, refinancings, recapitalizations, reorganizations or other special situations (referred to as "event-driven opportunities").

About Virtus Westchester Event-Driven Fd I (WCEIX)

There are 2 members of the management team with an average tenure of 12.58 years: Roy Behren (2014), Michael Shannon (2014). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: Bloomberg US Agg Bond TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and ICE BofA US 3M Trsy Bill TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Virtus Westchester Event-Driven Fd I has 544 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 41.2% 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.

Virtus Westchester Event-Driven Fd I is part of the Alternative Strategies global asset class and is within the Alternative fund group. Virtus Westchester Event-Driven Fd I has 7.7% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 67.2%. There is 7.3% allocated to foreign stock, and 2.2% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 20.1% (19.7% domestic bond, 0.4% foreign bond and 0.7% convertible bond). Virtus Westchester Event-Driven Fd I has 3.5% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $129 million in total assets, which is below the $329 million average for the Event Driven 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.

WCEIX 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 Virtus Westchester Event-Driven Fd I expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Event Driven category. Virtus Westchester Event-Driven Fd I has an expense ratio of 1.66%, which is 14% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a B. 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. Virtus Westchester Event-Driven Fd I has a portfolio turnover rate of 255%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 218% for the Event Driven category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, Virtus Westchester Event-Driven Fd I returned 0.0%, which earned it a grade of D, as the Event Driven category had an average return of 0.0%. 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.

Virtus Westchester Event-Driven Fd I has a trailing yield of 5.95%, which is above the 2.23% 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.

Virtus Westchester Event-Driven Fd I Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 1.6%, 0.8 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of D. The fund has returned 3.5% over the past year (grade of F), 5.9% over the past three years (grade of C) and 3.2% per year over the past five years (grade of F) and 4.7% per year over the past 10 years (grade of B).

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