Fund Evaluator:

Virtus Westchester Credit Event Fd I Overview

Virtus Westchester Credit Event Fd I (WCFIX) is an actively managed Taxable Bond Nontraditional Bond fund. Virtus launched the fund in 2017.

The investment seeks to provide attractive risk-adjusted returns independent of market cycles. The fund will invest principally in fixed income investments and other investments related to specific events or catalysts that the Adviser expects will cause material credit events or similar situations, such as capital structure arbitrage, mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, credit restructurings, IPOs of debt, re-financings, debt maturities, asset monetizations, and other restructurings.

About Virtus Westchester Credit Event Fd I (WCFIX)

There are 3 members of the management team with an average tenure of 8.59 years: Roy Behren (2017), Michael Shannon (2017), Steven Tan (2017). 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 Credit Event Fd I has 289 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 32.8% 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 Credit Event Fd I is part of the Fixed Income global asset class and is within the Taxable Bond fund group. Virtus Westchester Credit Event Fd I has 9.3% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 28.2%. There is 7.0% allocated to foreign stock, and 3.4% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 51.8% (49.6% domestic bond, 2.3% foreign bond and 3.8% convertible bond). Virtus Westchester Credit Event Fd I has 5.4% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $74 million in total assets, which is below the $663 million average for the Nontraditional Bond 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.

WCFIX 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 Credit Event Fd I expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Nontraditional Bond category. Virtus Westchester Credit Event Fd I has an expense ratio of 1.43%, which is 1% higher than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a C. 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 Credit Event Fd I has a portfolio turnover rate of 126%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 304% for the Nontraditional Bond category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, Virtus Westchester Credit Event Fd I returned -0.2%, which earned it a grade of C, as the Nontraditional Bond category had an average return of -0.2%. 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 Credit Event Fd I has a trailing yield of 7.61%, which is above the 4.94% 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 Credit Event Fd I Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 1.1%, 0.1 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of C. The fund has returned 2.2% over the past year (grade of F), 5.3% over the past three years (grade of C) and 3.5% per year over the past five years (grade of B).

For more mutual fund grades, analysis and screening tools to help your investment discovery, join AAII for a $2, full-access trial. Learn more here: https://invest.aaii.com/membership.

Otherwise, for more information about Virtus Westchester Credit Event Fd I, including its riskiness, submit your email to unlock the rest of the article.