Firm History
Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. is an SEC registered investment advisor that was established in 1979 and which grew out of the Duff & Phelps investment research firm that dates back to 1932. The Duff & Phelps investment research firm also produced another household name, Duff & Phelps Credit Rating, which was spun-off in 1994 and was subsequently acquired by Fitch, which later dropped the Duff & Phelps name from its corporate label.
Since 1995, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. (formerly Phoenix Investment Partners, Ltd.), a Hartford, CT. based company, which also owns five other independently managed investment management organizations. Virtus Investment Partners (“Virtus”) was a former wholly-owned subsidiary of The Phoenix Companies (NYSE:PNX), whose principle businesses are life insurance and annuities.
On October 1, 2008, Phoenix Investment Partners was renamed Virtus Investment Partners and changed the name of its mutual fund family from PhoenixFunds to Virtus Mutual Funds, with an accompanying change in the name of its individual mutual funds. PNX completed a spin-off of Virtus to its shareholders on December 31, 2008. Virtus is now a public company and its stock is traded on NASDAQ (ticker symbol: VRTS).