Closed To New Accounts

Closed to new accounts means an investment vehicle is no longer allowing new accounts to be added or opened.

Closed to new accounts is a type of status for an investment vehicle. The name is self-explanatory. It means that investment vehicle is no longer accepting new investors, but is still operating for existing investors. This status can apply to mutual funds, hedge funds or any professionally managed pooled investment vehicle. Sometimes funds will do a “soft close,” where existing shareholders can still buy shares even though new investors cannot open accounts or make purchases.

In addition, institutional money managers may close certain portfolio groups to new accounts, while leaving others open. In this case, there will be an "as of" date when the fund will officially close to new investors. Depending on the situation, this may or may not also affect the ability for current investors to add to their holdings in the fund. 

Investment vehicles, specifically funds, may be in a closed to new accounts status, or may be closed completely for all accounts. Either way, it is important to distinguish between closed and closed-en  funds. A closed-end fund is one in which there is a limited, specific amount of shares initially available to the public. Once all of those shares have been sold, the stock can only be sold or traded via an exchange.

A closed fund, on the other hand, didn’t necessarily have a finite amount of shares available. It has entered closed status for another reason. Closed-end funds are established with that categorization right from the start, while closed funds have entered that status at some point after their initial creation.

The managers of a fund can choose to close those funds for new investors for several reasons, but the most noticeable is to control the size of the fund and to lower the administrative costs. Generally speaking, the smaller a fund, the more nimble it can be and the more markets in which it can participate. 

Some mutual funds become so large that monthly inflows can amount to billions of dollars. Over time, the expected return from new money will drag down the returns of current investors. Closing a fund off to new accounts is only one method of controlling the asset base's growth. Other means of controlling a fund’s growth include raising the minimum investment amount or stopping existing investors from contributing more to the fund.