Exhibit 99B.D
ADVISORS SERIES TRUST
INVESTMENT ADVISORY AGREEMENT
_________________Fund
THIS INVESTMENT ADVISORY AGREEMENT is made as of the day of
, 2002, by and between the Advisors Series Trust, a Delaware business trust
(hereinafter called the "Trust"), on behalf of the following series of the
Trust, ___________ Fund (the "Fund") and _________________ (hereinafter called
the "Advisor").
WITNESSETH:
WHEREAS, the Trust is an open-end management investment company, registered as
such under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the "Investment Company Act");
and
WHEREAS, the Fund is a series of the Trust having separate assets and
liabilities; and
WHEREAS, the Advisor is registered as an investment adviser under the Investment
Advisers Act of 1940 (the "Advisers Act") (or is exempt from registration) and
is engaged in the business of supplying investment advice as an independent
contractor; and
WHEREAS, the Trust desires to retain the Advisor to render advice and services
to the Fund pursuant to the terms and provisions of this Agreement, and the
Advisor desires to furnish said advice and services;
NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the covenants and the mutual promises
hereinafter set forth, the parties to this Agreement, intending to be legally
bound hereby, mutually agree as follows:
1. Appointment of Advisor. The Trust hereby employs the Advisor and the
Advisor hereby accepts such employment, to render investment advice and related
services with respect to the assets of the Fund for the period and on the terms
set forth in this Agreement, subject to the supervision and direction of the
Trust's Board of Trustees.
2. Duties of Advisor.
(a) General Duties. The Advisor shall act as investment adviser to the Fund
and shall supervise investments of the Fund on behalf of the Fund in accordance
with the investment objectives, policies and restrictions of the Fund as set
forth in the Fund's and Trust's governing documents, including, without
limitation, the Trust's Agreement and Declaration of Trust and By-Laws; the
Fund's prospectus, statement of additional information and undertakings; and
such other limitations, policies and procedures as the Trustees may impose from
time to time in writing to the Advisor. In providing such services, the Advisor
shall at all times adhere to the provisions and restrictions contained in the
federal securities laws, applicable state securities laws, the Internal Revenue
Code, the Uniform Commercial Code and other applicable law.
Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the Advisor shall: (i)
furnish the Fund with advice and recommendations with respect to the investment
of the Fund's assets and the purchase and sale of portfolio securities for the
Fund, including the taking of such steps as may be necessary to implement such
advice and recommendations (i.e., placing the orders); (ii) manage and oversee
the investments of the Fund, subject to the ultimate supervision and direction
of the Trust's Board of Trustees; (iii) vote proxies for the Fund, file
ownership reports under Section 13 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for
the Fund, and take other actions on behalf of the Fund; (iv) maintain the books
and records required to be maintained by the Fund except to the extent
arrangements have been made for such books and records to be maintained by the
administrator or another agent of the Fund; (v) furnish reports, statements and
other data on securities, economic conditions and other matters related to the
investment of the Fund's assets which the Fund's administrator or distributor or
the officers of the Trust may reasonably request; and (vi) render to the Trust's
Board of Trustees such periodic and special reports with respect to each Fund's
investment activities as the Board may reasonably request, including at least
one in-person appearance annually before the Board of Trustees.
(b) Brokerage. The Advisor shall be responsible for decisions to buy and sell
securities for the Fund, for broker-dealer selection, and for negotiation of
brokerage commission rates, provided that the Advisor shall not direct order to
an affiliated person of the Advisor without general prior authorization to use
such affiliated broker or dealer for the Trust's Board of Trustees. The
Advisor's primary consideration in effecting a securities transaction will be
execution at the most favorable price. In selecting a broker-dealer to execute
each particular transaction, the Advisor may take the following into
consideration: the best net price available; the reliability, integrity and
financial condition of the broker-dealer; the size of and difficulty in
executing the order; and the value of the expected contribution of the broker-
dealer to the investment performance of the Fund on a continuing basis. The
price to the Fund in any transaction may be less favorable than that available
from another broker-dealer if the difference is reasonably justified by other
aspects of the portfolio execution services offered.
Subject to such policies as the Board of Trustees of the Trust may determine,
the Advisor shall not be deemed to have acted unlawfully or to have breached any
duty created by this Agreement or otherwise solely by reason of its having
caused the Fund to pay a broker or dealer that provides (directly or indirectly)
brokerage or research services to the Advisor an amount of commission for
effecting a portfolio transaction in excess of the amount of commission another
broker or dealer would have charged for effecting that transaction, if the
Advisor determines in good faith that such amount of commission was reasonable
in relation to the value of the brokerage and research services provided by such
broker or dealer, viewed in terms of either that particular transaction or the
Advisor's overall responsibilities with respect to the Trust. The Advisor is
further authorized to allocate the orders placed by it on behalf of the Fund to
such brokers or dealers who also provide research or statistical material, or
other services, to the Trust, the Advisor, or any affiliate of either. Such
allocation shall be in such amounts and proportions as the Advisor shall
determine, and the Advisor shall report on such allocations regularly to the
Trust, indicating the broker-dealers to whom such allocations have been made and
the basis therefor. The Advisor is also authorized to consider sales of shares
as a factor in the selection of brokers or dealers to execute portfolio
transactions, subject to the requirements of best execution, i.e., that such
brokers or dealers are able to execute the order promptly and at the best
obtainable securities price.
On occasions when the Advisor deems the purchase or sale of a security to be in
the best interest of the Fund as well as of other clients, the Advisor, to the
extent permitted by applicable laws and regulations, may aggregate the
securities to be so purchased or sold in order to obtain the most favorable
price or lower brokerage commissions and the most efficient execution. In such
event, allocation of the securities so purchased or sold, as well as the
expenses incurred in the transaction, will be made by the Advisor in the manner
it considers to be the most equitable and consistent with its fiduciary
obligations to the Fund and to such other clients.
3. Representations of the Advisor.
(a) The Advisor shall use its best judgment and efforts in rendering the advice
and services to the Fund as contemplated by this Agreement.
(b) The Advisor shall maintain all licenses and registrations necessary to
perform its duties hereunder in good order.
(c) The Advisor shall conduct its operations at all times in conformance with
the Advisers Act, the Investment Company Act , and any other applicable state
and/or self-regulatory organization regulations.
(d) The Advisor shall maintain errors and omissions insurance in an amount at
least equal to that disclosed to the Board of Trustees in connection with their
approval of this Agreement.
4. Independent Contractor. The Advisor shall, for all purposes herein, be
deemed to be an independent contractor, and shall, unless otherwise expressly
provided and authorized to do so, have no authority to act for or represent the
Trust or the Fund in any way, or in any way be deemed an agent for the Trust or
for the Fund. It is expressly understood and agreed that the services to be
rendered by the Advisor to the Fund under the provisions of this Agreement are
not to be deemed exclusive, and the Advisor shall be free to render similar or
different services to others so long as its ability to render the services
provided for in this Agreement shall not be impaired thereby.
5. Advisor's Personnel. The Advisor shall, at its own expense, maintain such
staff and employ or retain such personnel and consult with such other persons as
it shall from time to time determine to be necessary to the performance of its
obligations under this Agreement. Without limiting the generality of the
foregoing, the staff and personnel of the Advisor shall be deemed to include
persons employed or retained by the Advisor to furnish statistical information,
research, and other factual information, advice regarding economic factors and
trends, information with respect to technical and scientific developments, and
such other information, advice and assistance as the Advisor or the Trust's
Board of Trustees may desire and reasonably request.
6. Expenses.
(a) With respect to the operation of the Fund, the Advisor shall be responsible
for (i) providing the personnel, office space and equipment reasonably necessary
for the operation of the Fund, (ii) the expenses of printing and distributing
extra copies of the Fund's prospectus, statement of additional information, and
sales and advertising materials (but not the legal, auditing or accounting fees
attendant thereto) to prospective investors (but not to existing shareholders),
and (iii) the costs of any special Board of Trustees meetings or shareholder
meetings convened for the primary benefit of the Advisor. If the Advisor has
agreed to limit the operating expenses of the Fund, the Advisor shall also be
responsible on a monthly basis for any operating expenses that exceed the agreed
upon expense limit.
(b) The Fund is responsible for and has assumed the obligation for payment of
all of its expenses, other than as stated in Subparagraph 6(a) above, including
but not limited to: fees and expenses incurred in connection with the issuance,
registration and transfer of its shares; brokerage and commission expenses; all
expenses of transfer, receipt, safekeeping, servicing and accounting for the
cash, securities and other property of the Trust for the benefit of the Fund
including all fees and expenses of its custodian, shareholder services agent and
accounting services agent; interest charges on any borrowings; costs and
expenses of pricing and calculating its daily net asset value and of maintaining
its books of account required under the Investment Company Act; taxes, if any; a
pro rata portion of expenditures in connection with meetings of the Fund's
shareholders and the Trust's Board of Trustees that are properly payable by the
Fund; salaries and expenses of officers and fees and expenses of members of the
Trust's Board of Trustees or members of any advisory board or committee who are
not members of, affiliated with or interested persons of the Advisor; insurance
premiums on property or personnel of each Fund which inure to its benefit,
including liability and fidelity bond insurance; the cost of preparing and
printing reports, proxy statements, prospectuses and statements of additional
information of the Fund or other communications for distribution to existing
shareholders; legal, auditing and accounting fees; trade association dues; fees
and expenses (including legal fees) of registering and maintaining registration
of its shares for sale under federal and applicable state and foreign securities
laws; all expenses of maintaining and servicing shareholder accounts, including
all charges for transfer, shareholder recordkeeping, dividend disbursing,
redemption, and other agents for the benefit of the Fund, if any; and all other
charges and costs of its operation plus any extraordinary and non-recurring
expenses, except as herein otherwise prescribed.
(c) The Advisor may voluntarily absorb certain Fund expenses or waive the
Advisor's own advisory fee.
(d) To the extent the Advisor incurs any costs by assuming expenses which are
an obligation of the Fund as set forth herein, the Fund shall promptly reimburse
the Advisor for such costs and expenses, except to the extent the Advisor has
otherwise agreed to bear such expenses. To the extent the services for which a
Fund is obligated to pay are performed by the Advisor, the Advisor shall be
entitled to recover from such Fund to the extent of the Advisor's actual costs
for providing such services. In determining the Advisor's actual costs, the
Advisor may take into account an allocated portion of the salaries and overhead
of personnel performing such services.
7. Investment Advisory and Management Fee.
(a) The Fund shall pay to the Advisor, and the Advisor agrees to accept, as
full compensation for all investment management and advisory services furnished
or provided to such Fund pursuant to this Agreement, an annual management fee at
the rate set forth in Schedule A to this Agreement.
(b) The management fee shall be accrued daily by the Fund and paid to the
Advisor on the first business day of the succeeding month.
(c) The initial fee under this Agreement shall be payable on the first business
day of the first month following the effective date of this Agreement and shall
be prorated as set forth below. If this Agreement is terminated prior to the
end of any month, the fee to the Advisor shall be prorated for the portion of
any month in which this Agreement is in effect which is not a complete month
according to the proportion which the number of calendar days in the month
during which the Agreement is in effect bears to the number of calendar days in
the month, and shall be payable within ten (10) days after the date of
termination.
(d) The fee payable to the Advisor under this Agreement will be reduced to the
extent of any receivable owed by the Advisor to the Fund and as required under
any expense limitation applicable to a Fund.
(e) The Advisor voluntarily may reduce any portion of the compensation or
reimbursement of expenses due to it pursuant to this Agreement and may agree to
make payments to limit the expenses which are the responsibility of a Fund under
this Agreement. Any such reduction or payment shall be applicable only to such
specific reduction or payment and shall not constitute an agreement to reduce
any future compensation or reimbursement due to the Advisor hereunder or to
continue future payments. Any such reduction will be agreed to prior to accrual
of the related expense or fee and will be estimated daily and reconciled and
paid on a monthly basis.
(f) Any such reductions made by the Advisor in its fees or payment of expenses
which are the Fund's obligation are subject to reimbursement by the Fund to the
Advisor, if so requested by the Advisor, in subsequent fiscal years if the
aggregate amount actually paid by the Fund toward the operating expenses for
such fiscal year (taking into account the reimbursement) does not exceed the
applicable limitation on Fund expenses. Under the expense limitation agreement,
the Advisor may recoup reimbursements made in the Fund's first fiscal year in
any of the five succeeding fiscal years, reimbursements made in the Fund's
second fiscal year in any of the four succeeding fiscal years, and
reimbursements in any subsequent fiscal year over the following three fiscal
years. Any such reimbursement is also contingent upon Board of Trustees review
and approval at time the reimbursement is made. Such reimbursement may not be
paid prior to the Fund's payment of current ordinary operating expenses.
(g) The Advisor may agree not to require payment of any portion of the
compensation or reimbursement of expenses otherwise due to it pursuant to this
Agreement. Any such agreement shall be applicable only with respect to the
specific items covered thereby and shall not constitute an agreement not to
require payment of any future compensation or reimbursement due to the Advisor
hereunder.
8. No Shorting; No Borrowing. The Advisor agrees that neither it nor any of
its officers or employees shall take any short position in the shares of the
Fund. This prohibition shall not prevent the purchase of such shares by any of
the officers or employees of the Advisor or any trust, pension, profit-sharing
or other benefit plan for such persons or affiliates thereof, at a price not
less than the net asset value thereof at the time of purchase, as allowed
pursuant to rules promulgated under the Investment Company Act. The Advisor
agrees that neither it nor any of its officers or employees shall borrow from
the Fund or pledge or use the Fund's assets in connection with any borrowing not
directly for the Fund's benefit. For this purpose, failure to pay any amount
due and payable to the Fund for a period of more than thirty (30) days shall
constitute a borrowing.
9. Conflicts with Trust's Governing Documents and Applicable Laws. Nothing
herein contained shall be deemed to require the Trust or the Fund to take any
action contrary to the Trust's Agreement and Declaration of Trust, By-Laws, or
any applicable statute or regulation, or to relieve or deprive the Board of
Trustees of the Trust of its responsibility for and control of the conduct of
the affairs of the Trust and Fund. In this connection, the Advisor acknowledges
that the Trustees retain ultimate plenary authority over the Fund and may take
any and all actions necessary and reasonable to protect the interests of
shareholders.
10. Reports and Access. The Advisor agrees to supply such information to the
Fund's administrator and to permit such compliance inspections by the Fund's
administrator as shall be reasonably necessary to permit the administrator to
satisfy its obligations and respond to the reasonable requests of the Trustees.
11. Advisor's Liabilities and Indemnification.
(a) The Advisor shall have responsibility for the accuracy and completeness
(and liability for the lack thereof) of the statements in the Fund's offering
materials (including the prospectus, the statement of additional information,
advertising and sales materials), except for information supplied by the
administrator or the Trust or another third party for inclusion therein.
(b) The Advisor shall be liable to the Fund for any loss (including brokerage
charges) incurred by the Fund as a result of any improper investment made by the
Advisor.
(c) In the absence of willful misfeasance, bad faith, gross negligence, or
reckless disregard of the obligations or duties hereunder on the part of the
Advisor, the Advisor shall not be subject to liability to the Trust or the Fund
or to any shareholder of the Fund for any act or omission in the course of, or
connected with, rendering services hereunder or for any losses that may be
sustained in the purchase, holding or sale of any security by the Fund.
(d) Each party to this Agreement shall indemnify and hold harmless the other
party and the shareholders, directors, officers and employees of the other party
(any such person, an "Indemnified Party") against any loss, liability, claim,
damage or expense (including the reasonable cost of investigating and defending
any alleged loss, liability, claim, damage or expenses and reasonable counsel
fees incurred in connection therewith) arising out of the Indemnified Party's
performance or non-performance of any duties under this Agreement provided,
however, that nothing herein shall be deemed to protect any Indemnified Party
against any liability to which such Indemnified Party would otherwise be subject
by reason of willful misfeasance, bad faith or negligence in the performance of
duties hereunder or by reason of reckless disregard of obligations and duties
under this Agreement.
(e) No provision of this Agreement shall be construed to protect any Trustee or
officer of the Trust, or officer of the Advisor, from liability in violation of
Sections 17(h) and (i) of the Investment Company Act.
12. Non-Exclusivity; Trading for Advisor's Own Account. The Trust's employment
of the Advisor is not an exclusive arrangement. The Trust may from time to time
employ other individuals or entities to furnish it with the services provided
for herein. Likewise, the Advisor may act as investment adviser for any other
person, and shall not in any way be limited or restricted from buying, selling
or trading any securities for its or their own accounts or the accounts of
others for whom it or they may be acting, provided, however, that the Advisor
expressly represents that it will undertake no activities which will adversely
affect the performance of its obligations to the Fund under this Agreement; and
provided further that the Advisor will adhere to a code of ethics governing
employee trading and trading for proprietary accounts that conforms to the
requirements of the Investment Company Act and the Advisers Act and has been
approved by the Trust's Board of Trustees.
13. Term.
(a) This Agreement shall become effective at the time the Fund commences
operations pursuant to an effective amendment to the Trust's Registration
Statement under the Securities Act of 1933 and shall remain in effect for a
period of two (2) years, unless sooner terminated as hereinafter provided. This
Agreement shall continue in effect thereafter for additional periods not
exceeding one (l) year so long as such continuation is approved for the Fund at
least annually by (i) the Board of Trustees of the Trust or by the vote of a
majority of the outstanding voting securities of each Fund and (ii) the vote of
a majority of the Trustees of the Trust who are not parties to this Agreement
nor interested persons thereof, cast in person at a meeting called for the
purpose of voting on such approval. The terms "majority of the outstanding
voting securities" and "interested persons" shall have the meanings as set forth
in the Investment Company Act.
(b) The Fund may use the name _________ Fund or any name derived from or using
the name ______ only for so long as this Agreement or any extension, renewal or
amendment hereof remains in effect. Within sixty (60) days from such time as
this Agreement shall no longer be in effect, the Fund shall cease to use such a
name or any other name connected with the Advisor.
14. Termination; No Assignment.
(a) This Agreement may be terminated by the Trust on behalf of the Fund at any
time without payment of any penalty, by the Board of Trustees of the Trust or by
vote of a majority of the outstanding voting securities of a Fund, upon sixty
(60) days' written notice to the Advisor, and by the Advisor upon sixty (60)
days' written notice to the Fund. In the event of a termination, the Advisor
shall cooperate in the orderly transfer of the Fund's affairs and, at the
request of the Board of Trustees, transfer any and all books and records of the
Fund maintained by the Advisor on behalf of the Fund.
(b) This Agreement shall terminate automatically in the event of any transfer
or assignment thereof, as defined in the Investment Company Act.
15. Severability. If any provision of this Agreement shall be held or made
invalid by a court decision, statute or rule, or shall be otherwise rendered
invalid, the remainder of this Agreement shall not be affected thereby.
16. Captions. The captions in this Agreement are included for convenience of
reference only and in no way define or limit any of the provisions hereof or
otherwise affect their construction or effect.
17. Governing Law. This Agreement shall be governed by, and construed in
accordance with, the laws of the State of Arizona without giving effect to the
conflict of laws principles thereof; provided that nothing herein shall be
construed to preempt, or to be inconsistent with, any federal law, regulation or
rule, including the Investment Company Act and the Advisers Act and any rules
and regulations promulgated thereunder.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties hereto have caused this
Agreement to be duly executed by their duly authorized
officers, all on the day and year first above written.
ADVISORS SERIES TRUST [ ]
on behalf of the
___________________ Fund
By: By:
Name: ______________________ Name:
________________________
Title: ______________________ Title:
________________________
Schedule A
Series or Fund of Advisors Series Trust Annual Fee rate
____________ Fund ___% of average net assets